London: Tracie Sherwood was fired in 2018 for taking a lunch break and now she has received £11,885.62 (Rs 119,416,6) for wrongful termination.
She was a worker at Lean Education and Development in Dudley, West Midlands, England. She lost her job after the company's MD Maxine Jones fired her for going out for a meal with two colleagues when the company was going through a crisis.
The company was undergoing a stressful time because the audit wasn't done properly and many inconsistencies were recognised. The work environment was stressful. There were also rumours of the company possibly shutting down. Tracy was also promoted to Head of Compliance.
Jones was angry and fired her citing "disloyalty, lack of commitment, pure negligence, gross misconduct." The boss allegedly considered taking a regular lunch break as evidence that Sherwood wasn't "dedicated" to her position. She was also blamed for paperwork mistakes.
Sherwood sued her employer for an unethical termination procedure. Jones maintained that Tracie should not have taken the lunch break when the company was struggling and accused her of being dishonest towards work.
The Employment Tribunals upheld Sherwood's claim and concluded that the company's justifications for terminating her were invalid.