Judge orders fresh tribunal in detective’s job battle (From York Press)

Judge orders fresh tribunal in detective Louise Farrar’s job battle

9:28am Thursday 18th October 2012 in News

A “diligent and popular” detective, who claims she was ousted from her York job because she complained about her working conditions, has won the right to have her case re-heard.

Louise Farrar was a detective sergeant with North Yorkshire Police from 2006, working in the force’s York-based child abuse investigation team. However, she was told she would be returned to a uniform role after she became ill with anxiety and depression following a shake-up of her department. Mrs Farrar brought tribunal proceedings against her employer, claiming she was unfairly treated because of her complaints about poor staffing levels and changes to shifts.

She also claimed she was discriminated against in the restructure, which resulted in her – the primary carer of her three children – having to work three weekends out of five when she previously only worked on weekdays.

Her case was dismissed by a Leeds employment tribunal in May last year – which rejected her claims of unfair treatment and sex discrimination.

But a judge has now ordered a fresh hearing of her case before another tribunal – saying the original decision was “totally flawed”.

Giving his decision, following an Employment Appeal Tribunal hearing, Judge Jeffrey Burke QC said the tribunal’s reasoning for dismissing all Mrs Farrar's claims was “inadequate in law to a major degree”.