An HR worker has been awarded £56,000 after she was sacked when she warned her bosses that asking furloughed employees to work from home was against the law.
Sara Essa raised concerns that directors at Concert Live Ltd were trying to swerve rules by asking staff members who were on furlough to continue working remotely under the guise that it was ‘learning and development’ during the first year of the pandemic.
The company has since gone into administration and Ms Essa says she has yet to receive a penny of the sum awarded by the employment judge.
In May 2020, Ms Essa was employed as Head of People at London-based Concert Live Ltd, a company that created apps for live venues under the name Realife Tech with clients including the O2, Tottenham Hotspur FC and Wembley Arena.
Its directors include 34-year-old Harry Samuel, of the Hill Samuel banking family and heir apparent to the title of Viscount Bearsted whose seat is the Grade I listed Farley Hall in Berkshire.
But Ms Essa, who also complained to bosses that she was being paid less than her male counterparts, was let go without notice, being told that ‘things weren’t working out’ just weeks after she had raised concerns, an employment tribunal was told.
Now, a judge has found that Ms Essa, 31, was dismissed unfairly after making protected disclosures to her employers and awarded her £56,733 in damages.
HR worker Sara Essa has been awarded £56,000 after she was sacked when she complained that bosses including Harry Samuel (above) were breaking furlough laws during the lockdown
A tribunal heard Mr Samuel was ‘frustrated and unhappy’ when Ms Essa raised concerns about furlough rules and told her ‘that it was his company and he would run it the way he wanted’
The tribunal heard that Ms Essa had a number of phone conversations with her line manager Andy Whitehead and Harry Samuel, the chief operating officer, co-founder and proprietor of the business.
Mr Samuel, the panel was told, wanted to get employees who were on furlough to work remotely, being assigned to different roles so it would qualify as ‘learning and development’ activities.
The judgment reads: ‘He wanted to generate income for the business, which the Claimant told him was forbidden and illegal and that she was not prepared to sign off such a scheme.’
The tribunal heard that Eton-educated Mr Samuel was ‘frustrated and unhappy’ and wanted to go ahead, later telling Ms Essa that he had ‘heard enough, that it was his company and that he would run it in the way he wanted’.
While on furlough, employees were not permitted to work for their employer. The rules of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme meant that employers could not ask employees to carry out work that made the company money or required them to provide a service.
Employees were permitted to carry out training that would be classed as ‘learning and development’.
Ms Essa was told by manager Andy Whitehead (left) that ‘things weren’t working out’ before she was sacked by the company. Pictured (right): Director and co-founder Adam Goodyear
Ms Essa also raised concerns about her pay and the fact that she was the only female head of department in a team of nine.
The judge was told that Ms Essa was paid less than male employees who were carrying out similar roles and that Mr Whitehead had acknowledged the issue but said he did not want to ‘rock the boat’.
At the end of August 2020, the 31-year-old went on holiday for a week and heard nothing from her bosses while she was away. On her first day back, Mr Whitehead told her that they had decided to terminate her employment because ‘things weren’t working out’.
Ms Essa asked for reasons for her dismissal in writing but heard nothing from the company, which had offices in London and LA, after they terminated her employment.
Ruling in her favour, Judge Barrowclough said: ‘We found the Claimant to be a truthful and reliable witness whose evidence was broadly consistent with the documentation we have seen.
‘In our judgment, the Claimant made a number of protected disclosures in informing her employer that it was illegal to ask or require staff to work while they were on furlough, secondly that their recruitment and promotion practice was gender discriminatory and thirdly that they were discriminating against her because of her sex in paying her less than her male comparators.’
Headquarters: The firm had offices in London (pictured above) and LA in the United States
In awarding compensation, the judge found that Ms Essa suffered ‘something of a meltdown’ as a result of her dismissal which ‘dented her confidence’ and she struggled to find work due to the pandemic.
But despite the judge’s ruling in March this year, Ms Essa has yet to receive a penny from Concert Live Ltd as it has since gone into administration.
Director Adam Goodyear, who founded the company with Mr Samuel, has now registered a new company under the name Concert Live Music Ltd in June this year.
Speaking to MailOnline, Ms Essa said: ‘I think it’s really poor that organisations and directors can get away with such a level of wrongdoing and that a director is able to set up another firm with Companies House a month after going into administration.’
Ms Essa says she believes the company delayed the employment tribunal proceedings to allow them to file for administration before she was paid the awarded sum.
She said: ‘They were fully aware of their financial status six months ago and continued to drag something out that had already taken two years to reach a judgment.
‘It’s safe to say they have left a lot of ex-employees, not just me, very unhappy at how things were handled.’