A boss conducted a meeting about childcare while remaining on her horse and the employees standing around her. This was deemed to demonstrate an attitude that was not conducive to compromise and contributed to a groom successfully winning £18,700 in compensation for being discriminated against and unfairly sacked.
The groom in question, Charlotte Holloway, worked at a Derby-winning stables, The Durdans Stables in Epsom, Surrey, UK.
She worked part-time and had been on maternity leave. On her return she wanted to take up the same working schedule and times but her boss said that there needed to be a change because it wasn’t “reasonably practical” to allow her to return to the same position on the same specific hours and days she had before maternity leave.
Holloway couldn’t make that work as I understand it because she relied on her parents to babysit and they couldn’t adjust their scheduling.
The interesting aspect of this story is that the employment tribunal took into account the fact that the stables’ owner’s partner who was helping to run the business did not dismount from her horse when conducting a meeting about childcare and I understand to discuss Holloway’s desires to return to work on the same hours and timings.
Holloway felt that she had to resign and did so in 2020 and sued the stables for unfair dismissal and maternity discrimination.
The judge at the hearing ruled that the meeting was not conducted “in a spirit of compromise” as indicated by the fact that the boss sat on her horse during the meeting!
The judge added: “We’ve never come across anything like the situation where Mr Cooper’s partner held the meeting on the horse, forcing everyone to stand.”
Comment: it indicates a high-handed approach to remain a horse to conduct a meeting with your employees down below so to speak. The tribunal’s ruling indicates that the way a meeting takes place on this sort of matter should be conducive to compromise and if not, there could be negative ramifications for the employer.
RELATED: Groom to a polo pony sues horse’s owner for £2 million
My thanks to The Times newspaper of 6th Feb 2024 for this story. It is not about animal welfare which is the prime purpose of this site but it does show how animals can be brought into human disputes.
