A solicitor unfairly dismissed after taking leave following cancer treatment has been awarded £17,000 by a tribunal. Employment judge Bedeau ordered that Luton firm Rodman Pearce Solicitors Ltd pay Elona Onibere following a remedy hearing at the Watford tribunal last month.

The sum includes £11,000 for injury to feelings in respect of Onibere’s disability discrimination claims, with interest of £2,270.

Onibere will also receive around £3,000 for being unfairly and wrongfully dismissed, and £719 for two weeks’ lost pay.

The judge had ruled in March that Onibere suffered discrimination by being dismissed without consultation or an exploration of possible alternatives. The housing solicitor had a clause in her contract stating that her employment could be terminated if she was absent for 26 weeks in a year through incapacity, but the firm did not take into account that following her cancer diagnosis, Onibere was a disabled person as defined in the Equality Act 2010.

The tribunal found the firm had made a series of substantive failings: not sending the notice of termination letter, not sending the dismissal letter until mid-September, and offering no appeal hearing.

 

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