No procedure for dismissal resulted in a successful claim of over £3,000

A barber with four years’ service who was sacked after phoning in sick on a Monday following a weekend house party has won more than £3,000 after a tribunal said her employer had failed to follow a ‘fair process’ before dismissing her.

The Claimant developed a pattern of calling in sick on Mondays and in her first year of working, had more time off than all of her colleagues ‘combined’. The employer claimed that these sickness days fell conveniently on Mondays and Tuesdays, citing 17 occasions. However, the employee told the Tribunal that she suffered from suspected endometriosis, a disease affecting the lining of a woman’s womb.

It was known that she was having a house party and her employer told her not to “let him down” on the following Monday. She called in sick on the Monday morning and was sacked over the phone with no opportunity to attend a meeting, no right to be accompanied and no previous disciplinary warning having been issued.

The Employment Judge determined that the Claimant was sick with a ‘heavy period’ at the time she was sacked and upheld her claim of unfair dismissal stating that the employer did not act reasonably in all the circumstances in treating the Claimant’s poor attendance as a sufficient reason to dismiss, having not ever received any formal warnings about her attendance or being invited to a meeting to discuss her non-attendance. She was not given an opportunity to explain herself before being dismissed and there was no fair process followed. The Claimant was awarded £3,453 in compensation.