Job row gardener wins £49k after charity ‘broke her spirit’
AN AWARD-winning gardener at Sir Winston Churchill’s Chartwell home has won a £49,000 payout after a row sparked by volunteers’ tea breaks at the National Trust.
Claire Bryant, 63, claimed sex discrimination and harassment when overlooked for a job against a less-qualified male applicant.
But she felt that her “card was marked” over the dispute about breaks and said the charity “completely broke her spirit”.
Intimidated
Speaking after the case, Ms Bryant said: “I felt relief that I didn’t have to feel intimidated or afraid any more, and relief that I had my voice heard because I had been shouting into the wind.
“I can honestly say, I have never been closer to a complete nervous breakdown than I have through the last three years.
“It’s about being able to stand up for yourself. I wouldn’t want any of my family, or anybody’s family, to have to go through this. It has been horrendous. It really
knocked every ounce of confidence I have got. But for me, it has never been about the money.”
As well as her duties as kitchen gardener at Chartwell in Kent, where Churchill lived for 40 years, Ms Bryant won numerous awards and “absolutely loved” her job as a manager of up to 50 volunteers.
Tensions first arose over the length of volunteers’ tea breaks, she said. When complaints from senior staff were made, Ms Bryant said she “challenged” them.
She said: “The volunteers were rightly very upset. They were giving their time for free...regardless of the weather, and they would never abuse the tea breaks. I raised this, and I think that is
probably where the difficulty started It was ridiculous, it was like a tea break-gate.”
Ms Bryant said she was “humiliated” and was criticised in front of the public as part of the interview process for the post of senior gardener, despite strong performance reviews.
The panel ruled that Ms Bryant, from Tatsfield, Surrey, was “constructively unfairly dismissed” and found discrimination and harassment when Ms Bryant quit in 2018 after five years’ work.
The National Trust said it was “clearly disappointed by the decision” but said it was made clear the discrimination was not deliberate.