FORMER Le Rondin School head teacher Jane Stephens was unfairly dismissed. An employment tribunal announced its decision yesterday and awarded her six months’ pay, a total of £27,470.
The Education Department was ordered to pay her costs. It has a month to appeal against the decision.
The panel concluded that the department’s failure to adopt the rules of natural justice when sacking Mrs Stephens had made it impossible for it to be deemed as fair.
And she said it was time for the department to say sorry.
‘A sincere apology from deputies Ozanne, ‘Wendy’ Morgan, Hunter-Adam and Grut and Derek Neale ‘director’ to all those affected by their actions would be an honourable gesture on their part,’ she said.
‘They have been shown to be questionable and profligate, but whether they continue to maintain their positions is a decision for others to take.’
Mrs Stephens said she was grateful for the support from her family and friends and the many other acts of kindness and good wishes from so many people.
‘If there are any ﾓwinnersﾔ in this sorry business, it is the people who have supported me by upholding the truth and who have maintained their integrity in doing so.’
The judgement is critical of the Education board and the department’s senior management team and highlights a series of procedural failures. Panel chairman Peter Woodward said the tribunal was surprised that Mrs Stephens did not receive a copy of what was a key document relating to her dismissal, namely the record of a meeting she had with Education project director Yvonne Hodder in June 2004.
There was also confusion over who was Mrs Stephens’ line manager and it was a strange analogy when Crown Advocate Richard McMahon had sought to portray Mr Neale as a non-executive director.
He had told Mrs Stephens she was being suspended with immediate effect and that he would be recommending her dismissal to the board without giving her the reasons in writing, claiming the meeting was informal.
‘His role must surely have formal authority in the eyes of his subordinates and it is hardly credible that he could conduct this meeting as a colleague and deliver such a stark message,’ said Mr Woodward.
‘It is difficult not to regard such tactics as an ambush designed to achieve the compliance of Mrs Stephens with the minimum of fuss.’
Education minister Martin Ozanne said he was disappointed with the tribunal’s ruling and said his staff had acted professionally throughout the process.
‘I am sure that the teaching unions will agree with me that as long as matters can be resolved amicably, you should continue to try to do so rather than resorting to formal procedures which, inevitably, in a small community like Guernsey, would become public knowledge,’ he said.
‘That is what my staff tried to do until matters became so serious that they could not carry on.’
*The tribunal’s report is available as a PDF from the States of Guernsey website, here
Article posted on 18th April, 2007 - 12.00am
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