Elaine Sherratt and Tony Pullen, the Clinic’s employment lawyers, help clients with claims arising from being unfairly dismissed by their employer or facing discrimination or other issues in the workplace.
Compensation for sacked care home workers
The Clinic represents twenty-two care workers who suddenly lost their jobs when the care home where they worked, Elliott House in Herne Bay, was closed down due to financial and other problems. It was very distressing for staff, not only that they suddenly lost their jobs; they were also distressed to see the hectic and emotionally upsetting relocation of residents of the care home for whom they had cared. Earlier this year, with the help of Clinic students, Clinic lawyers Elaine and Tony brought claims in the Employment Tribunal for all twenty-two clients against their former employer. All the clients were due redundancy payments, arrears of pay, and notice money. Other claims included holiday pay, claims for misappropriated pension contributions (our clients’ employer had failed to pay pension contributions deducted from staff’s salaries into the relevant pension fund) and a claim based on the employer’s breach of its legal duty to carry out consultation with staff before making them redundant. All the claims against were successful. The total amount of compensation awarded to our clients by the Employment Tribunal was £206,450. The Judge paid tribute to the Law Clinic, describing the painstaking work done by Elaine and Tony as “nothing short of outstanding” and he also paid tribute to the Clinic students involved. Having obtained the judgments for our clients, enforcing the judgments is another thing altogether. The company had no money left – just debts. During the summer, the company was wound up by a government department. As a result, Elaine and Tony were able to submit claims to the government’s Redundancy Fund. So far £40,000 has been paid out for redundancy, a further £40,000 for ‘protective awards’ (e.g., for arrears of pay), and £13,000 compensation for being sacked without being given notice.
Here are the clients, with Tony and Elaine and students Bethany Short, Georgie Deol, and Amber Pickering (back) after a long day’s hearing.
Discrimination related to pregnancy – Our client had suffered two miscarriages and had been off work because of health complications she experienced related to her second miscarriage. She was given a formal absence warning by her employer. She resigned and claimed constructive dismissal on the basis that her employer’s actions amounted to pregnancy-related discrimination. The case had been listed for a 4-day hearing in the Employment Tribunal, but we were able to negotiate a settlement of our client’s claim.
Successfully negotiated retirement – Our client worked for Royal Mail. He had raised a grievance to management, but after this he became very fearful of management and unfortunately, he suffered mental illness. Royal Mail decided to dismiss him from his job. Our client was entitled to appeal against this. Elaine represented him at an appeal hearing held by Royal Mail. Following this hearing Royal Mail then changed their decision and instead offered him retirement on medical grounds; they also agreed to pay him notice pay, holiday pay and 8 months’ salary. This was a good outcome for our client.
Whistleblowing claim upheld – Our client was an agency care worker who had “whistle-blown;” she had informed the relevant authority about some bad practices at the care home where she had been placed by the agency. In response the care home terminated her engagement, and the agency ceased to offer her any work. She could not claim unfair dismissal, as she was not an employee of the care home nor of the agency, but Tony helped her to make a whistleblowing claim; our client won compensation near to the maximum available.