An employment tribunal has ruled that Lancashire County Council must pay out more than £800,000 to a teacher who was made to reapply for her job while on sick leave with cancer and then sacked.
Anne Healey worked as an early years specialist for the council’s schools improvement service since 2012 after a teaching career.
She was diagnosed with cancer in 2014 and had periods of sickness absence while undergoing chemotherapy. Healey returned to work in May 2016 but required more treatment in 2017 as the cancer had returned, and was then off until early 2019.
In 2018, there was an internal restructure of the department Healey worked in while she was off sick. Upon her return, she was interviewed for a leadership role in the early years consultant team which she did not get, but was offered a different position.
She wrote an appeal letter after this decision, stating that the original job had been given to someone who reported directly to her while she was on sick leave, that no reasonable adjustments were put in place at the interview for her own role, and that what she had been offered was a demotion.
After she did not accept the new position, Healey was dismissed. She lodged claims of unfair dismissal and disability discrimination, with the tribunal finding that she had been subjected to indirect discrimination by reason of the competitive interview process and that reasonable adjustments for her condition had not been made.
Employment Judge Mark Leach said: “(The) competitive interview process amounted to unfavourable treatment because of something arising from the claimant’s disability. That something was her long absence from work and treatment for cancer.”
Healey will receive a total award with interest of £800,713, which includes a £14,688 basic award based on salary, a personal injury pay-out of £45,000, an award for injury to feelings of £18,000, aggravated damages of £12,000, loss of earnings up to the hearing and until August 2032 of £333,572, and pension losses of £112,477.
Lancashire County Council has been contacted for comment prior to publication.
