Read And Believe!
We brought you a tribunal case last month when the reason for the ex-employee winning raised some eyebrows. This time,your eyebrows may well be raised even higher.
This case involved a nanny working for a couple who were both City bankers who were ordered to pay their former nanny £7,000 after they reported her to police following fears she had faked her CV. Why? Read on!
Melanie and Stephen Griffiths have been found guilty of victimising the nanny, Ilkay Cetin, after speaking to a police officer about their concerns she was not an ‘appropriate’ person to have cared for their two young children.
The couple – who worked at US investment giant JP Morgan as a private banker and managing director respectively – made the call after Ms Cetin, who is of Kurdish heritage, had accused them of racism while working for them.
Mrs Griffiths launched her own investigation into the nanny. As part of her enquiries she gathered references from her previous employers and called the police to run retrospective checks on her DBS certificate, the tribunal was told.
This led her to tell officers that she ‘had reason to be doubtful whether Ms Cetin had in fact been an appropriate person to look after her children,’ the panel heard.
Mrs Griffiths believed she had discovered anomalies in the nanny’s CV and sought to obtain references from her former employers and educational establishments, the panel heard.
When she discovered that the couple had spoken to the police, Ms Cetin sued them for victimisation, claiming the ‘core of her personality and values’ had been attacked as part of her claim.
The central London hearing was told that Ms Cetin worked as a nanny for the couple looking after their two young children between December 2017 and May 2018.
Her contract ended on what appeared to be good terms with the couple recommending the nanny to friends, hiring her for an additional two days in May, and inviting her to keep in touch with the children, the panel was told.
Ms Cetin however, ‘harboured concerns and resentments’ against some of the Griffiths’ ‘behaviour and speech to her,’ the tribunal heard.
Ms Cetin made several allegations including those for ‘unfair dismissal, unlawful deductions to wages, racism, discrimination, emotional torture and slavery,’ the panel heard.Mrs Griffiths
reacted to the legal action by making her own enquiries.
The police then contacted Ms Cetin to warn her in relation to a website she had set up. They warned her that if the behaviour was to continue, it ‘might require investigation and potentially arrest for the offence of harassment,’ the tribunal was told.
Judge Oliver Segal concluded that ‘whilst the reporting of the
nanny to the police was a ‘one off’ event, it caused considerable shock and upset initially and an ongoing sense of concern in
relation to future employment prospects.’
The tribunal awarded Ms Cetin the sum of £7,000 compensation for injury to feelings.
The Graham Agency, keeping you informed.
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