An HR professional who was fired after warning her managers that requiring furloughed workers to work from home was illegal has been awarded £56,000.
Sara Essa expressed worries that, during the first year of the epidemic, the directors of Concert Live Ltd were attempting to circumvent the law by urging employees who were on furlough to continue working remotely under the pretence that it was “learning and development.”
Since the firm entered administration, Ms. Essa claims she has not yet received a cent of the compensation determined by the employment court.
Ms. Essa began working at Concert Live Ltd. in May 2020. This London-based firm, formerly known as Realife Tech, developed apps for live venues for customers including the O2, Tottenham Hotspur FC, and Wembley Arena.
Harry Samuel, age 34, a member of the Hill Samuel banking family and the heir apparent to the title of Viscount Bearsted, whose seat is the Grade I listed Farley Hall in Berkshire, is one of the company’s directors.
However, only weeks after raising concerns, Ms. Essa, who also complained to her managers that she was paid less than her male coworkers, was fired without cause and informed that “things weren’t working out,” according to information provided to an employment tribunal.
Now, a court has determined that Ms. Essa, 31, was fired unjustly despite providing her employers with protected disclosures, and she has been given £56,733 in damages.
The tribunal learned that Ms. Essa spoke on the phone often with both Harry Samuel, the company’s COO and co-founder, and her line manager Andy Whitehead.
The panel was informed that Mr. Samuel sought to allocate remote jobs to workers on leave so that their work would count as “learning and development” activities.
He wanted to make money for the company, but the Claimant warned him that was against the law and that she was not willing to approve such a plan.
The Eton-educated Mr. Samuel reportedly told Ms. Essa that he had “heard enough, that it was his firm, and that he would manage it in the manner he wanted” after becoming “frustrated and dissatisfied” and wanting to move on, according to the tribunal.
Employees were not allowed to work for their employer while they were on furlough.
According to the guidelines of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, employers were not permitted to demand workers to do tasks that generated revenue for the business or required them to provide a service.
Employees were allowed to participate in “learning and development”-related training.
Concerns concerning Ms. Essa’s remuneration and the fact that she was the only female department head on a nine-person team were also voiced.
The court was informed that Ms. Essa received less pay than male workers doing comparable duties and that Mr. Whitehead was aware of the problem but did not want to “rock the boat.”
The 31-year-old went on vacation for a week at the end of August 2020 and had no communication from her superiors throughout that time.
On her first day back, Mr. Whitehead informed her that her job had been terminated due to “things not working out.”
The firm, which had offices in London and Los Angeles, did not respond to Ms. Essa’s written request for the grounds for her termination.
Judge Barrowclough ruled in her favour, stating, “We found the Claimant to be a credible and trustworthy witness whose testimony was generally consistent with the documents we have seen.”
“In our judgement, the Claimant made a number of protected disclosures in informing her employer that their recruitment and promotion practise was gender discriminatory, second that they were paying her less than her male comparators because they were discriminating against her because of her sex,” said the court.
The court decided to compensate Ms. Essa because she had “something of a breakdown” after being fired, which “dented her confidence,” and because the epidemic made it difficult for her to obtain employment.
Nevertheless, despite the judge’s decision in March of this year, Concert Live Ltd has now entered administration, and Ms Essa has yet to collect a dime from it.
Director Adam Goodyear, who co-founded the business with Mr. Samuel, has since filed a new business in June of this year under the name Concert Live Music Ltd.
‘I believe it’s incredibly awful that organisations and directors can get away with such a degree of dishonesty, and that a director is allowed to start up another corporation with Companies House a month after going into administration,’ Ms. Essa said in a statement to MailOnline.
According to Ms. Essa, the corporation delayed the labour tribunal hearings so they could declare bankruptcy before paying her the judgement.
They were completely aware of their financial situation six months before, yet they persisted in dragging out a case that had previously taken two years to resolve.
It’s reasonable to say that they left many ex-employees, including myself, dissatisfied with the way things were handled.