The Ministry of Justice has been ordered to pay out more than £10,000 to a court worker who was found to have suffered unlawful victimisation - the second such award this month. An employment tribunal, sitting in Manchester, found administrative officer Sheri Balogan had suffered unlawful victimisation over a grievance and was entitled to £10,935 for injury to feelings, plus interest.

Last week a London tribunal awarded £27,000 to a court officer in a claim over disability discrimination.

Balogan worked as an administrative officer at Manchester Magistrates' Court (pictured above). She had flagged to a colleague that face-to-face training provided by her line manager to a new employee should not have been carried out due to pandemic restrictions in place at the time. The manager then made a formal complaint about Balogan.

In a remedy judgment, employment judge Phil Allen said the three-person panel found Balogan was ‘clearly upset by what had been said in the grievance’ which the tribunal found was unlawful victimisation. He acknowledged it was a ‘one off’.

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The judgment said: ‘The claimant made an appointment to see her GP the day she found out about it, and, in her evidence, she described not eating or sleeping and being in floods of tears.’

Awarding damages for injury to feelings of £9,110 and interest of £1,835, the judge added: ‘The victimisation was something which was addressed over (and therefore had an impact over) quite a long period of time. That process extended the injury to the claimant’s feelings.’

 

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