After being fired for gross misconduct due to alleged bullying, a doctor in Lincolnshire is set to get more than PS250,000 after being sacked.
Professor Tanweer Ahmad had been working at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust without any blemishes for 16 years. He was also the director of Lincolnshire Clinical Research Facility when the allegations were made. He was also the chair of the black, Asian and minority ethnic network.
His claims of direct race discrimination and victimisation, as well as unfair dismissal, were successful in spring 2022. However, his claim for harassment was unsuccessful. After further considerations, and with the consent of Judge Victoria Butler, at the East Midlands Tribunal, Prof Ahmed has been awarded PS256,032. This includes a basic award for PS11,288 as well as a loss in statutory rights of PS500; loss of salary of PS163,834; and loss of pension of PS80,410.
A former member of the professor’s team made allegations of bullying and harassing him after they resigned from their positions in 2018. Ahmed called the accusations “malicious reprisal”.
The judge found that the Trust handled the investigation and dismissal of 2019 with many faults. The investigation report of the then deputy chief nurse Jennie Negus included only those who supported the accusations the tribunal heard. A number of the people questioned left Ahmed’s office before the allegations surfaced.
Ahmed’s personal secretary, who was not interviewed, called the allegations “laughable”, and most were proven to be false.
Ahmed was unaware of the nature and extent of the accusations for nearly a year.
Martin Rayson, the Trust’s HR Director, escalated the findings of the report to an hearing where dismissal would be considered despite the fact that the report recommended a development plan and not disciplinary actions. The tribunal heard Rayson warn Ahmed’s manager that Tanweer would play the race card as expected.
The panel fired Ahmed for gross misconduct, but the tribunal said that the decision was “entirely bias”.
The tribunal found that the Trust did not present any logical reasons why Ahmed was terminated and could not exclude racism. The NHS trust’s disciplinary process was handled badly at nearly every stage. This caused Ahmed years of stress.
The Employment Tribunal concluded, “We do not see how the Trust could have legitimately concluded he had committed gross misconduct.” We cannot conclude, on balance of probabilities, that race was not a factor in his dismissal.
Professor Karen Dunderdale, CEO of Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals Group, said that the large award for remedy would not affect patient care. She added that: “We accept that the tribunal found, at the first liability hearing, that our investigation into the allegations of bullying against Professor Ahmed was flawed.
We would like to apologize to Professor Ahmed for the failures of our internal process. We believe we have made significant progress as an organization in the seven years since we first raised these issues.
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