A London employment tribunal has awarded a former senior risk and compliance professional at National Westminster Bank (NatWest) approximately 88,000 pounds (US$112,000) for being “unfairly dismissed and discriminated against” while she was undergoing cancer treatment.
The employment tribunal’s latest decision, published Aug. 2, focused on what remedies Adeline Willis should receive, following an earlier decision by the employment tribunal last year that Willis had been unfairly dismissed.
According to last year’s tribunal proceedings, Willis informed her line manager and human resources about her colon cancer diagnosis in August 2019. During this time, Willis “did not take any significant periods of time off work” but would work from home on days she had hospital treatment appointments, tribunal documents stated.
Communications by Willis’s line manager indicated that she planned to “replace [Willis],” because she wouldn’t be able to rely on Willis for a “critical piece of work” she needed to deliver. While Willis was under the impression her sick leave application would be extended, the tribunal concluded NatWest had already decided that Willis “would not be returning to her role after her sick leave.”
Specifically, the tribunal concluded that the bank sought an extension of Willis’s employment “on compassionate grounds only and while she is ill, and that the business was not seeking to confirm her post or to extend her secondment once she was back at work.”
In conclusion, the employment tribunal found that the decision to terminate Willis was “tainted with discrimination.” Secondly, the tribunal found that NatWest failed to discuss with Willis other alternatives and “instead led her to believe that there would be an extension and that, therefore, there was no need for her to look for alternative roles.” 
Jaclyn Jaeger is a contributing editor at Compliance Chief 360° and a freelance business writer based in Manchester, New Hampshire.