A teacher who faced sex discrimination and victimisation has won the right to aggravated damages where the conduct of the employer caused further offence.
In St Andrews Catholic Primary School v Mrs G Blundell [2010] a teacher complained of sex discrimination after she informed the school she intended to take maternity leave. She believed she was then victimised and bullied for having brought the claim and consequently suffered a stress-related illness. After an encounter with parents she was disciplined and dismissed.
Blundell won her case at the employment tribunal and was awarded £290,000. The school appealed.
While the Employment Appeal Tribunal reduced some parts of Blundell’s award, it retained the aggravated damages of £5,000 because of the way the school conducted itself in the proceedings. The EAT specifically singled out the school’s attempt to bring evidence of Blundell being a bad teacher.
Delivering his judgment, Mr Justice Wilkie said that the way in which the remedies hearing had been conducted by the appellants, and in particular the bringing of a battery of evidence effectively to undermine
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