Starling Bank has been ordered to pay £1.1 million to a former employee that it treated unfavourably because of her asthma.
An employment tribunal last year ruled that former deputy company secretary Ms Raja, who was dismissed in March 2020, was treated unfairly by her manager who told her she was “not a Starling person” because she sometimes worked from home and left the office at her contracted time.
Although the company said it had dismissed her for performance-related reasons, the employment tribunal in London found that her manager’s decision had likely been affected by his attitude towards home working, and the fact that the claimant would have likely needed to spend more time working from home because of her asthma.
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There were occasions where her manager, Mr Newman, had ignored Raja’s emails about her ill-health and had blanked her in the office when she asked if she could work from home because of the effect the air conditioning was having on her asthma.
When she asked to speak to Newman about her condition in light of government Covid-19 guidance in March 2020, Raja was invited into a meeting room and dismissed. She was not given any prior indication of what the meeting would be about.
The employment tribunal judge was unconvinced that Newman had planned to dismiss Raja that day, and felt he had decided to bring forward the dismissal when he realised the claimant could ask about reasonable adjustments.
The tribunal dismissed Raja’s claim for unfair dismissal, but agreed that she had been treated unfavourably because of something arising from her disability and that she was subjected to a detriment because Starling Bank had not held a meeting to discuss her health and safety concerns, dismissing her instantly instead.
A remedy judgment published this week showed that the employment tribunal ordered Starling Bank to pay Raja £1,145,386.31 in compensation, comprising of awards for past and future loss of earnings, injury to feelings, breaching the Acas code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, interest and grossing up for tax.
A Starling Bank spokesperson said: “We respect the final decision of the tribunal and have taken on board the findings to ensure that we are continuing to learn as a company in seeking to uphold the highest standards. Our hope is this now brings the matter to a close for all those involved.”
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