Leeds manager wins costs in age discrimination case

A former manager with Leeds hospitals has won her claim for legal costs in the latest employment tribunal hearing.

Linda Sturdy, who had worked in the breast screening clinic at Seacroft Hospital for 17 years, was told to reapply for her post following an internal reshuffle in 2006. She was overlooked for promotion and was eventually sacked after she refused to take a more junior role. She was later reinstated and then subsequently made redundant.

She won her claim against age discrimination at an original employment tribunal, being awarded £42,000 after the tribunal found that managers had behaved in a “high-handed, malicious, insulting and oppressive manner”. She was later awarded a further £147,000 to cover loss of income and pension, injury to feelings and aggravated damages.

Now she has won her latest claim for her legal costs against Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The precise amount will be determined in a county court but she alleges that it has cost her £150,000 to fight the case. In its judgement the tribunal panel said that by awarding costs to Mrs Sturdy it was reflecting the “unreasonableness” of the way the trust had acted which had led to her incurring “considerable additional costs”.

The hospitals trust has said it is considering the judgement.

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