48 year old British-Nigerian woman, Ibukun Adebayo, who is a director at one of Princess Diana's favourite charities, Turning Point has been awarded a six-figure payout after her boss nicknamed her 'Looney Tunes' and sent an obscene email.
According to
UK Daily Mail, Mrs Adebayo won her religious and racial bias claim against
Turning Point, a drugs, alcohol and mental health charity at East London
Tribunal Service. She claimed she was unfairly sacked from her £84,000 position
as IT director at the charity by its chief executive Lord Victor Adebowale.
The hearing
was told that her boss David Hoare referred to her a 'Looney Tunes' in one
email to Lord Adebowale and sent another work email about a sex act. He was
given a warning by Lord Adebowale, but Mrs Adebayo a mother-of-five from Bexley
was dismissed from her job after she complained about Mr Hoare's gross
misconduct.
Now she is
seeking £466,815 in compensation for lost earnings and hurt feelings but says
that most of all she would like her job back. Turning Point adopted Princess
Diana as patron in 1985. She worked for the charity until her death and was
proud of the way it helped vulnerable people deal with drug and alcohol misuse.
Mrs Adebayo
joined the charity in June 2004 and managed over 20 IT workers and a
£1million-a-year budget at its central London office.
In 2011, Mr
Hoare sent director of strategic projects Beverley Priest an email about Mrs
Adebayo and also wrote about a sex act.
In October
2012, Mr Adebowale emailed Mr Hoare about Mrs Adebayo asking 'What have we
unleashed...?!' Mr Hoare replied: 'Looney tunes...'
Later that
year, he sent emails poking fun at Mrs Adebayo's Christian beliefs behind her
back, saying she was praying 'in the wilderness'.
And he said
a request for an interview with Mrs Adebayo should be 'killed' as they no
longer wanted her as the face of the charity.
Mrs Adebayo
was devastated to discover all these emails in April 2013 and complained about
Mr Hoare. Mr Hoare received only a formal warning for his gross misconduct.
But Lord
Adebowale, 52, sacked Mrs Adebayo in August 2013 for 'hacking into staff
emails'.
The tribunal
ruled that any reasonable employer would have 'given genuine and serious
consideration' to firing Mr Hoare for gross misconduct.
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