Winston ‘sacked whistleblower in £2m gift row’
Charity chief tells of ‘sham redundancy’
IVF pioneer Lord Winston sacked the boss of his charity after she ‘blew the whistle’ over a funding issue that could have breached the law, a tribunal heard.
Dyan Sterling is suing the 80-year- old for unfair dismissal from her role as chief executive officer of the Genesis Research Trust, the UK’s largest reproductive research organisation.
She alleges her ‘sham redundancy’ was arranged six hours after telling the trust it was in danger of breaking the law.
The dispute arose from a
‘Existential crisis’
donation worth more than £2million which was made to the charity, based at Imperial College London, in April. The money, from the Angela Pattman Scholarship Fund, was intended for scholarships for undergraduate medical students. But Lord Winston’s charity only funded postgraduate research grants.
The hearing was told that trustees began to fear staff at Imperial could sue for the gift as they might believe they were better entitled to the money.
They then considered transferring the funding to the college – something Mrs Sterling said raised ‘serious compliance issues’ and was possibly in breach of charity law. She said she repeatedly raised concerns over the charity’s handling of the donation that had increased their reserves to more than £6million.
Mrs Sterling claimed that trustees were reluctant to declare conflicts of interest relating to the donation and their relationship with their employer, Imperial College. In July, six hours after she sent a formal letter recommending the issue was referred to The Charity Commission, Lord Winston wrote a proposal announcing a company restructure.
Mrs Sterling was invited to a board meeting the same day to discuss her redundancy but she declined, asking for a postponement. She later discovered the meeting had gone ahead in her absence with no minutes taken.
She raised a grievance on July 24 but Lord Winston claimed her allegations were ‘without foundation or merit’ and refused an internal investigation. A second grievance was raised but received no response, the London tribunal heard.
Mrs Sterling was dismissed last month without a final redundancy consultation meeting or notice period. She claims she was ‘ punished’ for whistleblowing. But in his witness statement, Lord Winston said the charity had been losing money for a long period of time and Mrs Sterling had failed to rectify this.
He claimed it was facing an ‘existential crisis’ caused by the pandemic and further redundancy meetings were planned. To date, only Mrs Sterling, who earned £50,000 more than the next highest-paid employee, has lost her job.
In a preliminary hearing, the tribunal concluded it was likely Mrs Sterling was ‘singled out’ but evidence also suggests there was a ‘genuine’ financial cause for her redundancy. There will be a final ruling at an upcoming four-day hearing.