Gt Ormond Street worker sues hospital/claims she was called a ‘stupid northerner’...
 

A Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) worker who claims she was picked on because she was a white Christian woman is suing the hospital over bullying allegations.

Former data manager Catherine Maughan says colleagues called her a “stupid northerner” and is claiming sex, race and religious discrimination against the world famous children's hospital.

The 36-year-old, from Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, told a Central London employment tribunal how staff at the hospital told her not to drink after work because it would offend Muslims, kicked her in a lift, and subjected her to racial slurs and threatening behaviour.

The tribunal heard how Maughan was so stressed her hair fell out, she was prescribed antidepressants and started counselling.

In a statement, she also claims she felt “extremely anxious, stressed, and worried for [her] safety” and alleges that a manager banged his fist on a desk and told her she “would be sorry” that she complained about him.

She also claimed they sabotaged her attempts to get another job by providing “misleading” references and is separately claiming that GOSH deprived her of wages.

A tribunal panel heard Maughan, who had worked for the hospital for three years but transferred departments in July 2017, kept a journal of the alleged bullying which started on her first day in the job.

Examples of entries, which note the dates and sometimes the times of day of the alleged incidents, were included in her witness statement presented to the judge.

One of her entries accused another employee of describing Maughan as “another stupid white northerner”, while another employee allegedly told her she “must ask for permission when leaving my desk or using the toilet”.

Maughan claimed an internal staff survey revealed other colleagues felt that bullying was a problem in her department.

She said she raised the issue multiple times with colleagues but eventually, in November 2018, she made a formal complaint.

During an extended period time off work because of stress, Maughan claimed that GOSH tried to undermine her attempts to find another job – partly because she complained about a patient letter being sent to her home.

Referring to one failed job application, she said: “HR sent a misleading and inaccurate reference which resulted in the job offer at Leeds St James’s Hospital being withdrawn.

"I consider this is victimisation for raising complaints of bullying, discrimination, threatening behaviour, raising concerns about safety risks and raising concerns about data protection breaches.”

On the day she handed in her resignation letter, she noted: “I continue to lose a large amount of hair on a daily basis and I feel embarrassed and deeply devastated and upset, worried that a large amount of my hair has fallen out and I was left with visible bald patches and very thinned hair.”

In her resignation letter, enclosed in her statement, she said: “GOSH have breached trust and confidence and acted in a manner that damages my health, reputation and career prospects.

“GOSH have subjected me to abusive treatment and acted in breach of contact on numerous occasions.”

Maughan has made complaints of discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, and sex as well as a complaint that GOSH failed to pay or made unauthorised deductions from her wages.

The hospital denies all the allegations. The two-week tribunal continues.

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/catherine-...084749508.html

Hope she gets her justice.

sounds like a nightmare

Horrible, I temped in an office once with a complete pack of horrible people, it can happen and they feed off each other as well

but more often than not I have worked with lovely people :love:

Hopefully she has enough proof, these things can be hard to prove

This has all the markings of a fake Facebook story. White victimhood, being told not to do something perfectly normal because it 'offends Muslims' (spoiler alert, Muslims don't care if other people drink or not), etc. It reads like a racebait article.

If it's true then I hope the people responsible are sacked, but the fact this case is built on her being victimised for being white and Christian makes me doubtful. I'd take the sexism claims seriously since that's more believable, but the rest I find dubious.

And yet if it was the other way round you wouldn't find it dubious at all.

I think there is truth to it, a lot of southerners (especially in London) have the attitude that northerners are dumb and backwards

Really? never come across that myself

its in the mirror, metro and telegraph. . But its a story generated from the actual tribunal in central London.

Yeah it use to be a silly trope where people saw northerners as too common and thick , it also goes back to the whole working class and middle class/upper class status aswell.

But regarding this situation , proof is needed for her to make accusations like that . Seems very weird she'd be picked on for being a "white Christian woman" the wording of that seems like it's been hammed up. Maybe there was a disagreement and it escalated .

You'll always get some people who feel uncomfortable being around drinkers if they don't drink themselves, but same goes for smokers . But they either put up with it or they stay away from it.

There's a difference between posting baiting rubbish on FB and actually taking legal action. She must think she has grounds!

But you, of course, are dubious because she's a white christian. Our hospitals are full of workers from all walks of life, from all over the world, logically there is no reason why any form or racism wouldn't exist.

We'll see what comes out in court. If it were a random FB post, i'd be dubious too, but the fact she's taken this to court tells me there is truth in what she's saying.

I'll stick with having sympathy and hoping whatever did, or didn't happen comes out in court.

She may very well have been bullied, but the fact that she's apparently making out that it's because she's white and Christian makes me doubtful. Throw in a touch of muslim hysteria and you've got an article that reads like peak 'PC gone made' tripe.

If she has been bullied, I hope she gets her justice, but my guess is that this will end up being thrown out of court and we'll learn there's more to the story then what's been said.

There's always more to the story

Yeah that's one thing, but to say it's probably BS because of race and/or religion is another.