A former HS2 compliance manager who was unfairly dismissed by the company is to receive a total of £7,647.92.
Earlier this year, an employment tribunal ruled that HS2 unfairly sacked Sharon Goodison after it took more than a year to respond to her complaint.
An employment tribunal tasked with determining the appropriate level of compensation has now ruled that there was a 75% chance Goodison “would have resigned in any event” and therefore “compensation for unfair dismissal should be reduced by a 75%”.
As such, the tribunal ruled that HS2 should pay Goodison total compensation of £7,647.92 for unfair dismissal. It is made up of a basic award of £3,264, a compensatory award of £3,109.27 and a 20% increase on both.
The case centered on a complaint lodged by Goodison in August 2020. She told HS2 she had been harassed by her managing director, but only received a response in August 2021, despite the company’s complaints policy state railway company promised to “make every effort to deal with complaints as soon as possible”.
Employment judge Jill Brown said the delay was “all the more serious” as HS2 had received an occupational health report four months after her investigation showing Goodison’s health was deteriorating during the claims process .
Goodison also claimed she faced racial discrimination, racial harassment and victimization when working at HS2. However, the employment tribunal said there was no evidence he did so, adding that Goodison had at times been “hostile” towards his manager.
In determining the level of compensation, the tribunal found there was evidence that Goodison was “already alienated” from her manager and work environment by January 2021.
The judgment continued: “It was very likely that he would have resigned then, in any event, had he received the same outcome of the complaint, before any unreasonable delay had occurred.
“On all the facts, including the claimant’s alienation from her manager at an early stage, but bearing in mind the damage that an unresolved grievance would also have caused to employment relations, the court found it much more likely that not that the plaintiff would have resigned, in any case, if there had been no delay in the outcome of the complaint.
“However, in the court’s assessment, the delay was still a factor that affected the plaintiff’s decision.”
The court found that the “extremely long delay” in providing Goodison with an outcome of the claim would almost inevitably have resulted in her “becoming more disgruntled and entrenched in her hostility towards her manager and the company”.
The tribunal also ruled that Goodison had “mitigated his loss” by accepting a fixed-term contract with the Cabinet Office in November 2021.
The judgment said: “This paper almost entirely extinguished his losses, unless there was an ongoing loss of pension. The court found that the loss of pension was caused by his unfair dismissal and that it was just and equitable that the plaintiff to recover compensation for this continued loss”.
A spokesperson for HS2 said: “We work hard to embed equality and diversity in everything we do at HS2 and are proud of the inclusive workplace culture we are creating.
“The court highlighted some issues with the application of our human resources processes, which we will learn from, but above all, the claims of racism, discrimination, victimization and harassment were without merit. The safety and well-being of all employees of ‘HS2 are the foundation of our company’s values.’
