Good grievance! ‘Moaner’ gets £20k for unfair firing
A MORTGAGE adviser who told her boss she was working too many hours and being underpaid commission was fired two days later for ‘always moaning’.
Helen McMahon – a £27,000-ayear adviser who helped clients buy new homes – often worked 12-hour days with no break, a tribunal heard.
She emailed her boss at Heron Financial about unpaid commission in her latest pay slip then took two weeks off through stress before asking to meet manager Robin Thomas. ‘I said I was working more than 48 hours a week,’ she told the tribunal, ‘that it was stressing me out and that I wanted somehow to reduce my hours.’ But two days later, in May 2019, she was asked to see company founder Warren Harrocks, who told her she was being let go with no explanation.
The firm in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, told the tribunal Mrs McMahon was fired over performance concerns, despite being
awarded a bottle of champagne as reward for her work. Mr Harrocks claimed he was unaware she had raised concerns with her boss.
But judge Sarah King said: ‘This was a small business and the directors discussed matters regularly. It is clear that during the meeting Mrs McMahon asserted a number of statutory rights. Mr Thomas felt she was “moaning” as she was “always moaning”.’
She ruled the sacking was unfair and awarded Mrs McMahon £20,000 for the dismissal plus £3,500 for unlawful wage deduction, unpaid commission, sick pay and wrongful dismissal.