An office worker will receive compensation after her recruitment boss breached employment laws by refusing to say hello to her.
Andrew Gilchrist refused to greet Nadine Hanson three times when she arrived for work, a Leeds employment tribunal heard.
Mr Gilchrist was reportedly angry at Ms Hanson because he thought she was late but he had no idea she had been at a medical appointment.
The 62-year-old then gave two colleagues a pay rise without telling her within an hour of confronting her.
His behaviour led to Ms Hanson winning an unfair dismissal claim, with employment judge Sarah Davies concluding his behaviour was ‘unreasonable’ and likely to ‘undermine trust and confidence’.
Mr Gilchrist, who had just taken over the business, was ‘deliberately undermining’ regional operations manager Ms Hanson to try to force her to leave, it was heard.
Andrew Gilchrist, pictured, refused to greet Nadine Hanson three times when she arrived for work, a Leeds employment tribunal heard
He pushed her phone out of the way when she tried to explain she had an appointment, suggested that she ‘leave’ and went behind her back by giving two staff members pay rises without informing her.
Ms Hanson, who eventually quit and suffered from anxiety due to how she was treated by Mr Gilchrist, has now successfully sued his company for unfair dismissal.
She also won a claim of unauthorised deduction from wages after Mr Gilchrist withheld her sick pay because he thought she was faking being unwell.
Ms Hanson is now in line to receive compensation from Interaction Recruitment Ltd, which has 30 offices across the UK.
‘That is conduct, from the owner and director of the new employer, that is calculated or likely to undermine trust and confidence,’ the judge said.
‘While it might not, by itself, be a fundamental breach of contract, it was capable of contributing to such a breach.’
The tribunal heard Ms Hanson was Northern Regional Operations Manager in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, working for another recruitment company.
In September 2023 Interaction Recruitment acquired the company and managing director Mr Gilchrist travelled to the Scunthorpe office to meet Ms Hanson and two other staff members that worked under her.
The tribunal, in Leeds, found that after a ‘get to know you’ meeting of less than an hour, Mr Gilchrist formed a ‘snap judgement’ of Ms Hanson that she was not pulling her weight, despite it being unwarranted.
A tribunal report said: ‘It is equally clear that Mr Gilchrist quickly formed the impression that [Ms Hanson] “did very little work and left her two colleagues to do the work” and that he was “not happy”.
‘This was apparently on the basis of a “get to know you” team meeting lasting less than an hour with everyone present, and without any proper information about what [she]did or proper discussion with her about that.’
Days later, he made an unannounced visit to the Scunthorpe office.
‘He arrived before [Ms Hanson]. She arrived late that day, because she had a medical appointment. It was a busy day because they had arranged for a number of candidates to come in and be interviewed. There were about eight candidates filling in forms when [she] arrived.
‘[Ms Hanson’s] evidence is that she said good morning to Mr Gilchrist three times, but he ignored her.
‘He then told her, in front of her colleagues, “I suggest you go into the meeting room”.
‘They went into the meeting room. She attempted to show him her phone with evidence of her medical appointment, but he pushed it to one side.
Mr Gilchrist was ‘deliberately undermining’ regional operations manager Ms Hanson to try to force her to leave, a Leeds employment tribunal (pictured) heard
‘He said, “I suggest if you don’t want to be here that you leave”. She replied, “After 20 years of working for the company, the only way I will be leaving is if you make me redundant”.
‘The meeting became quite heated. She tried to tell Mr Gilchrist about how she performed her role.’
Mr Gilchrist claimed at the tribunal that he ‘could not remember’ whether he said hello because it was so busy, but said he thinks he said ‘hello to everyone’.
The tribunal found his evidence to be ‘wholly unconvincing’ and heard within an hour of the incident with Ms Hanson, he sent an email to her two direct reports, giving them a pay rise.
Ms Hanson was ‘humiliated’ because she was not informed.
In October 2023, Ms Hanson handed in her eight-week notice, saying she had been ‘made to feel undervalued’ and that it left her ‘feeling undermined and causing her sleepless nights, upset and anxiety’.
She was signed off with anxiety during her notice period – but the tribunal heard Mr Gilchrist refused to pay her sick pay because he didn’t believe her.
Ms Hanson won claims of unfair dismissal and unauthorised deduction from wages.
Concluding, Employment Judge Sarah Davies said it was ‘implausible’ that Mr Gilchrist didn’t hear Ms Hanson’s greeting and that he ‘deliberately’ ignored her.
Judge Davies said: ‘I find that there was no reasonable or proper cause for deliberately ignoring [her] when she arrived at work, despite her greeting him three times.
‘That is conduct, from the owner and Director of the new employer, that is calculated or likely to undermine trust and confidence. While it might not, by itself, be a fundamental breach of contract, it was capable of contributing to such a breach.
‘I find that Mr Gilchrist had already formed an adverse view that [she] was not pulling her weight, he made an unannounced visit to check up on her and was unhappy that she arrived late.
‘He took her into the back room to deal with that. He pushed away her mobile phone when she tried to show him her medical appointment and launched straight into criticism of [her].
‘While [Ms Hanson] had not disengaged, I have no hesitation in finding that Mr Gilchrist had disengaged with her.
‘He had plainly formed the view by the end of their conversation on 26 September 2023 that [she] had no future with the business.
‘That was not because she had disengaged. It was because he had formed a snap judgement that she was not pulling her weight; had been unhappy that she arrived late at work following a medical appointment of which he was unaware; and had told her that she should leave if she did not want to be there.
‘When she told him that the only way she was going was if she was made redundant, he determined that she had no future with the business.
‘That is why he offered pay rises to her staff members within an hour and without discussing it with her.
‘The situation was not that urgent… He simply did not want [Ms Hanson] there anymore.’
Compensation will be determined a later date.
