Payout for NHS worker, 89, axed by ageist bosses

A WoMAn of 89 who is the oldest person ever to sue her bosses for age discrimination has accepted a cash payout.

nHS secretary eileen Jolly was fired after managers blamed her failure to use a computer system on her ‘old secretarial ways’.

The grandmother was escorted out of the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading following her dismissal in January last year.

But after a judge ruled in a landmark case that she had been unfairly sacked due to her age, the hospital trust offered her a cash payment as an out-of-court settlement. She accepted the undisclosed sum.

The nHS trust admitted she was unfairly dismissed as she was not given the chance to appeal – but insisted the decision to sack her was not made on the basis of her age.

Mrs Jolly, from Tilehurst, Berkshire, told the employment tribunal in Reading that an internal report into her work compiled by a manager included ‘unpleasant remarks’ about her age and health.

The widow, who has a heart condition and walks with a stick, was particularly hurt that one colleague was quoted as saying: ‘It was always a concern that you could walk in and find eileen dead on the floor.’

She said at the time: ‘I felt as though he had assumed that at my age and because of my health I was a liability.’

Mrs Jolly told the tribunal she had not taken a day off sick for ten years, despite having had a cardiac arrest at work in 2004 when she had to be resuscitated by a surgeon. She said it had been her intention to continue to work for as long as possible – until she was at least 90.

employment judge Andrew GumbitiZimuto ruled that Mrs Jolly’s grievances had not been addressed by the trust and that she had been discriminated against on the grounds of age.

The Royal Berkshire nHS Foundation Trust said in a statement on Saturday that the case had been ‘upsetting and distressing for all concerned’.

A spokesman added: ‘The trust is disappointed by the outcome.’