Banned secretary loses unfair dismissal fight

Monday 27 July 2020

A doctor’s secretary, who was barred from the building she worked in after a "verbal altercation", has lost her claim for unfair dismissal compensation.

Lynn Butel was secretary to consultant vascular surgeon Gerard Williams in his private surgery, which is part of Castle Quay Medical Practice.

Giving evidence to a recent Employment Tribunal, Ms Butel said that within months of starting at Castle Quay in July 2018, she did not have time to listen to the general “office noise”, “banter” and “chit chat about who had or had not paid their bill”.

She said that she was not interested in discussions which took place between work colleagues and that she “dreaded the politics” of such conversations. 

In its judgment, the Tribunal found that: “The evidence showed that [Ms Butel’s] lack of tolerance and somewhat unpredictable nature put other members of staff on edge and that members of staff, including doctors, found her difficult to work with.”

Pictured: Castle Quay Medical Practice.

Mr Williams found a temporary solution where Ms Butel moved to an office in the Lido Medical Centre for most of the week but returned to Castle Quay when required, especially on a Thursday morning when he held his private clinic.

That temporary arrangement ended last June but in February this year, as the Tribunal judgment explains: “There was a verbal altercation between [Ms Butel] and a member of the Castle Quay staff who was upset by the way in which she was behaving towards them.”

Mr Williams was then called to a meeting, where the practice manager told him that the other partners had decided that Ms Butel would no longer be allowed to work there. He was “stunned” at this news but was left in no doubt that they wanted “a clean break” from his secretary, as her behaviour apparently caused disruption with colleagues at Castle Quay.

With Ms Butel unable to attend his practice, significantly when patients were there on a Thursday morning, the consultant was forced to let her go, which led to the unfair dismissal claim. One of her principal arguments was that she could have returned to working from the Lido Medical Centre.

Pictured: The Employment and Discrimination Tribunal threw out the claim during a hearing last month.

But the Tribunal rejected that, with Chair Hilary Griffin ruling: “Unfortunately, although [Ms Butel] was clearly excellent at her job, her exclusion from Castle Quay meant that it became impossible for her to carry out her role... therefore, her contract was frustrated.

"Consequently, there is no dismissal in law.”