A nurse who was left out of her job’s tea rounds has won more than £40,000 in compensation. Susan Hamilton said her coworker Abdool Nayeck made the hot drinks for everyone in her team except her – after she raised concerns about his job performance.
An employment tribunal heard Nayeck had a ‘difficult’ relationship with the NHS nurse, even ignoring her when she would greet him, and face the other way when speaking in meetings. The pair tried to go to mediation over their issues when Nayeck reportedly said ‘I don’t like Sue.’, ultimately deciding to be polite to one another.
But things didn’t get better – Mrs Hamilton claimed Nayeck’s only change to his behaviour was making tea for no one. She also said he bullied her and stole her book. Mrs Hamilton left St Helier Hospital in Sutton, London, and complained of the Trust’s handling of her complaints into Mr Nayeck.
An employment judge has now given her £41,000 in compensation after finding the Trust failed to ‘appropriately’ address her concerns. The tribunal heard Nayeck and Mrs Hamilton first butted heads in 2018 when they disagreed over how to respond to a patient who collapsed at home.
The nurse went on to apologise for her ‘tone’ when she questioned Nayeck’s job competency, but from that point onwards, their relationship soured. It was then that Nayeck stopped making tea for Mrs Hamilton when he would make it for everyone else.
A year after their first mediation, Nayeck wrote a lengthy complaint against Mrs Hamilton, alleging that he had been bullied by her over the preceding two years. An investigation ensued and during a meeting, Mrs Hamilton said the dietician had been ‘very abusive’ towards her, despite having tried to ‘better the relationship’ by offering him tea and coffee.
She raised grievances against Nayeck and the trust, which were upheld – later leading to her resignation. Employment Judge Kathryn Ramsden said: ‘[Mrs Hamilton’s] evidence was that there was no change in Mr Nayeck’s behaviour after the formal mediation, save that rather than making tea for everyone else besides [Mrs Hamilton], he now made tea for no one.
‘This was despite the fact that the formal mediation had concluded with them agreeing, among other things, ‘to communicate in a civil manner with each other at work’.’. The panel said that in the Trusts evidence, Mr Nayeck’s conduct ‘continued to fall far short of the standards it expected’.
‘Mrs Hamilton’s evidence of the impact that that had on her was powerful: she was a gifted nurse, who loved her job, and she was immensely distressed to have found herself in a situation where she could not do it.’. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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