A paralegal who succeeded in an employment tribunal claim after ‘giving up her dream to become a solicitor’ has been awarded more than £100,000.
The claimant, identified as Ms F Kaiser, last year succeeded in her complaints of disability discrimination, sex discrimination, breach of contract, and automatic unfair dismissal against Ilford-based Khans Solicitors. The employment tribunal also found that the firm had failed to provide her with written terms and conditions, and itemised pay slips.
Kaiser, 48, joined Khans Solicitors in 2019 and was ‘keen to become a qualified solicitor’.
Ruling on the claim, employment judge Jones said Kaiser was ‘honest and upfront’ with the firm’s partners about an issue that ‘might affect her path to being admitted to the roll’. She asked the partners to hold off signing a training contract until she could sort out the issue, which they agreed to do. The firm then wrote to Kaiser informing her she would be a caseworker on £8.21 per hour, the national minimum wage at the time, working a 35-hour week. The firm, the remedy judgment said, ‘never paid her those wages, although it is our judgment that she worked in excess of those hours’.
It added: ‘The claimant has had her confidence damaged as a result of the way she was treated by the respondent. In contrast to how she felt when she first began working for the respondent, she does not believe that she will qualify now, although we hope that she will, after sufficient time is passed.’
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Considering the award to be granted for unfair dismissal, the judge said Kaiser was dismissed because she advocated for her right to be paid the national minimum wage. However the judge found she was frequently not paid at all or paid less than the minimum wage.
Awarding Kaiser £25,000 for injury to feelings, the judge said Kaiser ‘trusted’ the firm and was ‘keen to qualify as a solicitor’ which the firm had promised to help her do ‘by certifying to the volume, breadth and quality of the work she did for the practice’.
He added: ‘For her part, despite her disabilities and the pain and discomfort that she felt most of the time; the claimant worked hard, did everything she was told to do, went to the office on weekends and worked late into the evenings, hoping that this would all lead to her eventually achieving her goal of becoming a solicitor.
‘The claimant…inevitably suffered a sense of injury to herself and her sense of wellbeing and suffered from a deterioration in her mental health, as a result of the discrimination and the discriminatory dismissal. As a result of the treatment and her experiences at the respondent, she has given up her dream of becoming a solicitor.
The firm was ordered to pay Kaiser £105,420.64 and £3,600 in costs.
