An Employment Tribunal has awarded a former police officer £1.1 million in compensation for a disability discrimination and constructive dismissal claim in Mrs K Hibbert v The Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police: 3310944/2020. The claim was brought against Mrs Hibbert’s employer who withdrew permission allowing the former officer to run an events business alongside her policing role.
Background to the claim
The Claimant, Mrs Hibbert, worked for the Thames Valley Police (TVP) as a safeguarding sergeant which involved working with young people who were subject to child sexual exploitation and child drug exploitation. Prior to the matter of the claim, Mrs Hibbert had an exemplary 20 years’ service in the force and had never been subject to any complaint.
Mrs Hibbert began experiencing panic attacks and PTSD symptoms in 2018, attributable to the emotionally intense work that was involved in the role. She was advised by an occupational health nurse to have other interests and hobbies outside of work to help cope with the intensity of it and for the benefit of her mental health. Under the Police Regulations 2003, carrying on a secondary business is a type of ‘business interest’ and police officers must apply for permission to do so. Mrs Hibbert, therefore, requested and received permission from TVP to set up a small party and events business which she did alongside her role.
In 2019, Mrs Hibbert was negatively affected after learning that a vulnerable young person that she had been working with had passed away and she was signed off work due to stress. During this time, she continued to work on her events business for therapeutic reasons and to help with her recovery.
Whilst Mrs Hibbert was absent on sick leave, TVP reviewed her business interest permission and found out through Facebook that her business still remained active whilst she was away. TVP came to the decision to remove her permission to carry out a business interest on the basis that it was impacting her return to work, Mrs Hibbert appealed this decision but the removal was upheld.
TVP later started disciplinary proceedings against Mrs Hibbert for alleged gross misconduct for carrying on with her business once permission had been removed, as there had been several occasions where Mrs Hibbert had carried out some activities for the events business knowing that her permission to do so had been withdrawn. Mrs Hibert resigned from her role in January 2020, but the conduct process continued after her resignation. A conduct hearing was held in June 2020 but was dismissed on the basis that TVP failed to follow the Police Regulations 2003 in respect of the business interest appeal procedure. In August 2020, Mrs Hibbert brought a claim against TVP for disability discrimination and constructive dismissal.
Tribunal’s judgement and award
It was the Tribunal’s view that Mrs Hibbert was still able to work on her events business during her period of leave as it was helpful for her recovery, and the withdrawal of permission was a removal of a significant coping mechanism. The Tribunal held that TVP had failed to make reasonable adjustments and that discrimination had arisen from Mrs Hibbert’s disability in respect of the withdrawal of the permission to conduct a business interest. The claim for constructive discriminatory dismissal succeeded.
Mrs Hibbert was awarded a total sum of £1,168,561 in compensation. When determining the appropriate sum, it was the medical expert’s opinion that Mrs Hibbert was unable to work for the police force any longer, so had lost both her income for the remainder of her working life and her pension entitlement, which was calculated to be £13,375 per year from the age of 60. The compensation for future financial losses totalled £602,570.
The Tribunal also conducted a grossing up exercise to decide what tax would be payable and to make an additional award to reflect this, so that Mrs Hibbert would receive a sum which broadly represented the figure awarded by the Tribunal. This amounted to a substantial further sum of £500,207 being awarded.
The grossing up exercise was necessary in this case as majority of the compensation, most notably the future income losses and pension payments, were taxable. It is unusual for a Tribunal to award such a large sum of compensation but this was due to the specific facts of this case, as Mrs Hibbert was entitled to a highly valuable pension in her public sector role with TVP and the pension payments would have not been subject to much tax if she had received them yearly, however when receiving them all in one payment it would be taxed at much higher rates.
If you would like some guidance regarding a potential disability claim or how to balance the needs of your employees with the needs of the business, please get in touch with our employment team who can provide you with expert advice.