I was about to post this on the Sandie Peggie thread as this case came up in discussion there but I thought it would sidetrack that thread & was worthy of discussion on its own. It's historic but a good indication of how badly the NHS can behave when ganging up on an employee.
Several threads back passing reference was made to another NHS Employment Tribunal case in 2011 that was gob-smackingly awful. The claimant was awarded £4.5 million for unfair dismissal, sex discrimination and race discrimination.
I found & posted the judgment & have now had the opportunity to read through it properly. Briefly in 2002 the claimant Dr Eva Michalak was appointed a consultant in Acute Medicine. She was the first female consultant in that department & there was some bad feeling among her colleagues when she took maternity leave shortly after taking up her appointment & the others were forced to cover her absence. There was then a sustained campaign of bullying & plotting to have her fired that involved many consultants & went on for years with secret meetings. She was eventually fired in 2009 after a trumped up disciplinary
Her husband acted for her at the ET. He gave up his job to work full time on the case. She was a total wreck diagnosed with PTSD & unable to ever work again all related to how she had been treated by the Trust & her colleagues. The Trust claimed that there had been no plan to push her out of the job but during the process of discovery documents revealed that is exactly what the Trust had been doing & it was all documented.
The judgment is just extraordinary. The Trust CEO lied to the court. The Medical Director lied to the court. The HR Director lied to the court. Three of the four members of the disciplinary panel who decided to dismiss the claimant were unable under cross-examination to explain why she had been dismissed.
In rejecting the claimant's contention that future loss of earnings should be calculated on the basis that she would only have retired at 75 years of age, the tribunal relied on no less an authority than John Lennon and quoted the lyrics from his song “Beautiful Boy” (1980), namely: “Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans”.
I have included links to the judgment plus some other discussions of the case. It shows just how awful NHS culture can be & how appallingly employees get treated. I hope that there is enough reading here for everyone until the Sandie Peggie tribunal resumes tomorrow.
data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2014-1569/1810815_2008_Judgment.pdf
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-16224062
www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/husband-of-doctor-in-ps45m-bias-payout-speaks-out-1913419
www.foxwilliams.com/2016/10/03/nhs-consultant-awarded-4-5-million-for-sex-and-race-discrimination/
app.croneri.co.uk/law-and-guidance/case-reports/michalak-v-mid-yorkshire-nhs-trust-2011-employment-tribunal-case-no