British-Nigerian Woman Wins Six-Figure Payout Against Her Employer ........

A director at one of Princess Diana's favourite charities has been awarded a six-figure payout after her boss nicknamed her 'Looney Tunes' and sent an obscene email.

Ibukun Adebayo, 48, won her religious and racial bias claim against Turning Point, a drugs, alcohol and mental health charity at East London Tribunal Service.

Mrs Adebayo 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.

The former model was once described by a business magazine as 'an unconventional leader of IT' after she was interviewed 'dressed in candy pink'.

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.

It said of Mr Hoare's X-rated email: 'By any token, the remark was highly inappropriate, particularly from the second most senior paid officer in a large organisation.

'Any organisation with the degree of commitment to equal opportunities that Turning Point claims to have would have removed Mr Hoare from being the sponsor of Turning Point's equal opportunities policies or at the very least given serious consideration to doing so.'

It added: 'Mr Hoare and Lord Adebowale were the least convincing of Turning Point's witnesses.

'All Turning Point's witnesses that were involved in the treatment of Ms Adebayo's grievance towards Mr Hoare and how to respond to what she discovered about him were highly unconvincing.

'There was no convincing evidence that Lord Adebowale gave consideration to Mr Hoare's actions in the light of him being the second most senior employee of Turning Point.'

Mrs Adebayo accepted that her hacking amounted to misconduct but the tribunal found it had been a disproportionate response to fire her when Mr Hoare kept his job.

It ruled: 'A reasonable employer would not show such a degree of double standards in how two employees who have committed gross misconduct are treated.'

The panel found her own behaviour had partly contributed to her dismissal and rejected the majority of her allegations of discrimination.

Mrs Adebajo had previously worked as an IT chief at the Royal Albert Hall and Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Speaking outside court about the abrupt end of her nine year career at Turning Point, she said: 'Every human being has the right to be treated with dignity and respect at work.

'I am a committed Christian and therefore have forgiven them. I hope to return to Turning Point to continue in a leadership role in support of the charity's service users and so as to continue to set an example to my five children.

'I remain committed to reaching an amicable settlement to the testing period of the last two years.'

Her solicitor Lawrence Davies, of law firm Equal Justice, called for Lord Adebowale and Mr Hoare to resign.

He said: 'Lord Adebowale's failure to protect and his victimisation of our client is entirely incompatible with his position as CEO of a leading social care charity.

'He should resign. They both should. The Charity Commissioners must act on this if Turning Point does not.'

The tribunal is due to decide the amount of Mrs Adebajo's compensation in September.

A Turning Point spokeswoman said the charity 'was unable to comment' as legal proceedings are ongoing.

 Culled from Daiymail.co.uk

Lord Adebowale and Hoare should both resign or be sacked and Mrs Adebayo should forget about going back to work there.Her hacking into emails kind of puts a question mark on her character as well.