It wasn’t a good day in court this week for Essex County Council.
To quote from the Guardian:
School dinner lady was unfairly sacked
A school dinner lady who was sacked after telling a couple that their seven-year-old daughter had been tied to a fence and hit with a skipping rope by a group of boys has won her claim for unfair dismissal, it was announced today.
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Carol Hill was suspended from Great Tey primary school, Essex, after the incident in June 2009, and then dismissed by governors after telling a local newspaper what had happened to her, an employment tribunal heard previously.
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Unison, which represented Hill, said the panel had found that her dismissal was procedurally unfair because the school did not carry out a reasonable investigation into the allegations, and that the disciplinary and appeal hearings were not fair hearings.
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The tribunal, sitting in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, heard that the girl appeared to have been tied to a playing field fence by her wrist and then “whipped” across the legs with a skipping rope.
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The school’s head, Deborah Crabb, said four boys involved had explained that they were playing a game called “prisoners and guards”. The incident was not bullying but an “inappropriate game” which went too far, she argued during the three-day hearing.
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Crabb sent a letter to the girl’s parents saying: “You may wish to know [the girl] had a minor accident today. She was hurt on the right leg and right wrist with a skipping rope.”
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But Hill gave more detail to the girl’s mother at a Scouts meeting outside school, and a written statement to the girl’s family ? which was passed to police ? and then called a newspaper to tell of her suspension, the tribunal heard…..
Most other newspapers have reported this as a clear victory for Mrs Hill.
However the East Anglian Daily Times has a different interpretation:
Confusion over dinner lady?s tribunal
ESSEX education authority and a union are in dispute over the meaning of an employment tribunal ruling in the case of a school dinner lady sacked after telling a couple how their seven-year-old daughter had been tied to a fence and hit with a skipping rope by other children….
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…..However, the school and Essex County Council have hit back at Unison, the trade union backing Mrs Hill, saying that it was wrong to suggest she had won the unfair dismissal claim and that further representation was still needed to resolve the matter.
‘They’ seem to be trying to do the same with the Basildon firefighters who commited that great sin of writing to their MP! Has common sense left Essex?