An office worker who was repeatedly ignored by her boss when she greeted him has won a claim for unfair dismissal.
In September 2023, Nadine Hanson, who worked for Interaction Recruitment, said hello to the organisation’s managing director Andrew Gilchrist three times in the office but he refused to reply.
Gilchrist had become angry when he mistakenly thought she was late to work, without realising she had been attending a medical appointment.
When Hanson tried to explain by showing proof of the appointment on her phone, he pushed it out of the way and suggested that she leave. In the next hour, he sent emails to two employees managed by Hanson awarding them pay rises without informing her.
The tribunal judge said: “He had already formed the view that she did not pull her weight and was dumping all the work on her colleagues and was critical of her for that. He had not had any proper discussion or conversation with her about what work she did, where and when.”
In October 2023, Hanson quit, stating she felt undervalued and was signed off work due to anxiety caused by her treatment.
She is now in line for compensation after winning her unfair dismissal claim against the organisation, as well as a claim of unauthorised deduction from wages after her sick pay was withheld because Gilchrist did not believe she was genuinely unwell.
The tribunal judge said: “The claimant understandably felt humiliated and she rightly felt that she did not belong and was not wanted.”
Nicola Brown, partner and employment law specialist at Mayo Wynne Baxter, explained the reason this case succeeded was not only because the owner and director of the organisation refused to say hello to the employee, but due to an accumulation of things that ultimately meant she was able to treat herself as having been dismissed.
Brown said: “There is an unwritten term in every contract of employment which requires employers and employees to treat each other reasonably, known as the duty of mutual trust and confidence. If that duty is seriously breached, then either party has the right to bring the contract to an end.”
Serious breach of the duty can happen with a significant one-off event, but more often it happens with several smaller events building up to a last straw, as seems to have been the case for Hanson, according to Brown.
She added: “The lessons that employers should take away from this case is that even incidents which might seem minor or petty on their own can build up to give an employee a claim, so it is important that all colleagues, but particularly managers, ensure that they treat others appropriately.”
