The Cheshire Home has had to pay a former employee more than £6,000 in damages after a tribunal panel found she was unfairly dismissed.
The case, decided earlier this year, was the third such tribunal the Cheshire Home has had to answer to in three years. The other two cases were dismissed.
On this occasion, Lynn Cortez took the Home to an Employment and Discrimination Tribunal after losing her job in 2024. She had worked for the charity for 14 months.
Ms Cortez successfully claimed she had been unfairly dismissed during a ‘Return to Work’ meeting in August 2024 after she had been off following a fall and a holiday.
According to Ms Cortez, at the RTW Meeting she was asked if she was tired and was told she had taken too much sick leave and that she should not discuss her own health conditions with clients.
In her statement, she said: “(I) was told to take a break then when feeling better to
reapply. I’d been sacked on the spot and due to my disability.”
In response, the Cheshire Home – represented by its Chairman Rob Shepherd – called witnesses who gave evidence about Ms Cortez’s performance at work and the amount of sick leave she had taken.
Mr Shepherd submitted that there was evidence that Ms Cortez was sometimes
confused and struggled with memory issues and fatigue.
He confirmed that the Cheshire Home had offered to re-instate Ms Cortez during the pre-complaint conciliation process, but she had declined this offer. Mr Shepherd asked for the award payable to be reduced because of this.
The Tribunal panel found that Ms Cortez had been unfairly dismissed, saying: “The Tribunal agrees and unanimously concludes that the process for the dismissal of Ms Cortez was unfair in the circumstances”.
However, the panel also found that the Cheshire Home would have dismissed Ms Cortez anyway due to “capability concerns”. The award payable was reduced to reflect this.
The Cheshire Home was ordered to pay Ms Cortez £6,172.13.
The previous two Tribunals were also around unfair dismissal claims.
Mr Shepherd represented the Cheshire Home in a case in 2024 while Advocate Thomas Crawfourd represented it in 2023. Both claims were dismissed by the Employment and Discrimination Tribunal panel.
The Cheshire Home declined to comment when approached by Express.