Exec ‘replaced’ during cancer treatment awarded £1.2m

An executive whose job was given to someone else while she was on sick leave with cancer has won £1.2 million in compensation at the employment tribunal.

Andrea Wainwright claimed for discrimination arising from disability and constructive dismissal at an initial tribunal.

However, although the tribunal found that appointing someone else to her role and telling her this was temporary amounted to disability discrimination, it found no grounds for constructive dismissal or that the dismissal was discriminatory, so she appealed.

Wainwright worked for banking services company Cennox when she was diagnosed with and began receiving treatment for breast cancer.

During a period of sick leave, which included chemotherapy, a colleague stepped into her role and Wainwright was told this was temporary.

The colleague had been offered a role at a competitor, the tribunal heard, and was counter-offered with Wainwright’s role as head of installations with a view to splitting the role when Wainwright returned.

However, Cennox underwent a restructure and created a new organisational chart with Shelley Cawthorne, the colleague, now in Wainwright’s role. The latter never received any communication informing her of the changes and she was not mentioned in the new chart.

Wainwright only discovered the change thanks to a LinkedIn post by Cawthorne, and emailed the HR director to ask what was going on.

She was told the organisational changes were “not expected” to alter her role and that Cawthorne’s role was temporary.

Wainwright was then informed at her return to work meeting that the role would be split, and, unhappy with the outcome, submitted a grievance to the company.

Her grievance was not upheld, and Wainwright continued to assert that she had been demoted because of her cancer treatment. She resigned in September 2019 and filed a tribunal claim for disability discrimination and discriminatory constructive dismissal.

The initial tribunal agreed that she had been misled by Cennox regarding the changes to her role, and that she felt “traumatised and broken” on discovering someone else had taken her job.

At the Employment Appeal Tribunal, the court ruled that the tribunal had misapplied the law and failed to give adequate reasons for rejecting Wainwright’s claim for discriminatory constructive dismissal.

At the new tribunal, it was found that her constructive dismissal was discriminatory as discriminatory treatment was a central part of her reason to resign. She was awarded £1.2 million in damages.

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