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.
UK Daily Mail
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