Ex-firefighter tells employment tribunal: 'I was past myself, I was desperate for help'

A former firefighter has told an employment tribunal she lost trust and faith in most of the brigade and felt "I was on my own".

Julie Wilkinson said she was "past myself" and "desperate" when she was on sick leave with stress and anxiety. She said she was dealing with a grievance and appeal with her employer Cleveland Fire Authority at the time, and learned the brigade had "broken into my house and searched it".

Ms Wilkinson, 57, from Redcar, is claiming unfair dismissal and discrimination because of a disability, and victimisation because of previous claims, one of which was a successful claim for sexual harassment. The authority says it acted reasonably in dismissing her in March 2004, when she had been on sick leave for just over two years.

She told Teesside Magistrates' Court she was prevented rather than supported to return to work. She said in her evidence: "I lost a lot of trust and faith in the majority of the brigade through things that had happened to me."

She said she was off sick in 2021 and had nine occupational health referrals in that year, but those stopped for nine months after she went on sick leave in February 2022 with stress and anxiety, telling the tribunal she did not feel safe. She also submitted a grievance in February 2022, which was the subject of an appeal later in the year.

She told the court on Thursday, June 12: "When I booked sick that was a cry for help because I couldn't go to work any more under the conditions."

She said she should have been referred to occupational health immediately under the authority's procedures: "If that had happened I would have started receiving help immediately."

'I couldn't wait any longer'

She said there was no contact in a two-month monitoring period and she was "in shock" to be invited to a capability hearing. She said she never declined support from the brigade, saying she referred herself to the Fire Fighters Charity because of a lack of contact or support from the brigade: "I couldn't wait any longer."

She said the authority was only interested in "can you come back to work today as a firefighter or not, can you come back in a different role or not". She said: "I did try and bring up the subject of redeployment.

"They weren't looking at redeployment or taking it seriously. There was no suggestion of any phased return or any modified duties."

She said there should have been an informal stage giving her the opportunity to improve her attendance and providing help and support with her health problems. She disagreed with the authority which argued for someone on long-term sickness this would have been "setting them up to fail".

'You can't be on sick forever'

She was cross-examined by Bryony Clayton, representing the fire authority, who said: "You understand that someone who has been on long-term sick, there will come a time when the respondent has to consider terminating the employment of the individual on the grounds of capability? You accept you can't be on sick forever, there has to come a point when that's reviewed?"

Ms Wilkinson replied: "Yes and it shouldn't take two years before they review it." Ms Clayton said: "You should have been dismissed earlier, is that what you're saying?" Ms Wilkinson answered: "No, what I'm saying is intervention should have been earlier."

Ms Bryony put to her that a welfare officer contacted her, checked up on her and did what he should have done. Ms Wilkinson said: "No, he's not following procedure."

Mental health issues

Ms Wilkinson said the officer should have considered a phased return to work, modified duties or reasonable adjustments: "None of that was discussed... He did offer support and when I asked him for support, I never heard from him again."

Ms Bryony said she did not raise a complaint at the time: "You would have raised that if you were concerned about it. You're very quick to email if you're unhappy about something, and you didn't."

Ms Wilkinson said: "I had no support. I was on my own.

"I'd already booked sick with mental health issues. I was past myself. I was desperate for help.

'That took over my life'

"I found out that Cleveland Fire Brigade had broken into my home four months prior and nobody had informed me. I had all that information to process."

The tribunal previously heard her home was broken into in February 2022 "out of concern... that she was going to hurt herself". She added: "That took over my life. I knew after everything that had happened I was on my own. I was paranoid and I wanted help."

Ms Clayton said the authority had to be careful not to bombard or harass her and make things worse while dealing with her grievances against colleagues, whose behaviour she said made her ill. She responded: "No, there's a policy to follow.

'I wanted to go to work'

"When it suited them the Cleveland Fire Authority followed the policy to a tee, when they wanted to dismiss me, but when it's supporting me they don't follow it."

She did not agree that her grievances took longer to investigate properly because of their complexity, nor that she wasn't assessed by occupational health because of these. She was asked whether she was not fit to work during this period, and replied: "September 2022 I asked for redeployment.

"I don't like not working. I wanted to go to work. I just couldn't do the job I was doing under the medication and my mental health condition at the time. I wanted to be redeployed to somewhere outside an operational role."

Ms Clayton said it would have been unsafe to bring her back to work when she still had sick notes saying she was unfit. Ms Wilkinson responded it would be safe to look into redeployment.

Referring to therapy, wellbeing assessments, psychological treatment and counselling, Ms Clayton asserted the authority did support Ms Wilkinson, who said: "That was a year after I booked sick."

Proceeding

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