A BRIT has been awarded £150,000 after her boss ordered her to drive from Germany to Britain for a meeting he skipped.
Bethan Littlewood, 29, was called to a meeting in the UK at the last minute while abroad in 2023, leading to her driving overnight across Europe to arrive on time.
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Beth Littlewood was awarded £150,000 after her boss asked her to drive from Germany to Britain for a meeting he did not attend Credit: Solent
The former canoe polo gold medallist for Great Britain began working for Nuffield Health in 2016 Credit: Solent News
But upon her arrival, the personal trainer found out that her gym boss was “double booked” and was attending training elsewhere.
She has been awarded £149,017 in compensation after successfully suing the company for a long list of her grievances.
Bethan told The Independent: “It’s been a long long time in the making, and it’s been a bit of a process and it’s hard to say you’re happy after everything you’ve been through, but it’s something, you know?
“The craziest thing is, the whole time they were like ‘You haven’t got a case’. I was thinking ‘there’s no way what you’ve done is right’.”
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The canoe polo player won the European gold medal for Great Britain in 2019.
At the beginning of her sport journey at the age of 15, she had been diagnosed with stage-three ovarian cancer.
While competing for the GB canoe polo team, she was also working as a personal trainer at Virgin Active and then Nuffield Health in 2016.
She reported a new fitness manager, Declan Morris, in June 2022 for carrying out an MOD fitness test on someone with an elevated high blood pressure reading.
After confronting Morris about the test, which should not have been done, he began withholding three hours of pay a week from Bethan’s wage.
She said that he was “bullying her and withholding her wages” after the incident, adding “he has held it completely against me and has been particularly unpleasant and unfair”.
Morris reported Bethan in October 2022 for not following her shift times, despite him not properly informing her about the rota changes.
In the following months, her pay was significantly reduced which led to “financial hardship” for her.
A Nuffield Health customer reported Morris in November 2022 after seeing him use a “menacing and even threatening voice” towards her.
The tribunal heard: “The member went on to say they considered Mr Morris had chosen the moment to maximise his need to demonstrate power, she was shocked by his behaviour and felt compelled to write the letter, describing it as verbal aggression.”
Her grievances towards Morris were not upheld by the company after the customer complaint and Bethan signed off from work with stress in early 2023.
Following a disciplinary hearing against Bethan in May 2023, based on an allegation that she had falsely claimed inflated pay, she was given a final warning.
She submitted a request for annual leave on September 5 and 12, but had it declined by Morris as she was told she was on sick leave.
While travelling in Germany to compete at the Canoe Polo European Championships, she was told to attend a meeting with the boss, James Cheadle, on September 12 at 1pm.
Conscious of her final warning, she drove through the night from Germany to arrive at the meeting.
The tribunal heard: “When she arrived at the club on 12 September 2023 and reported to reception she was advised that Mr Cheadle was not at the club but in Newbury attending some training.
“Mr Cheadle explained in his witness statement that he was aware he was double booked with training and meeting [Ms Littlewood].
“The general manager instructed him to attend the training and ‘in the worst case scenario’ the manager was in the club and available.”
Employment Judge Samantha Moore said that she was entitled to take annual leave during sick leave, and she had felt she was fit for work, but Nuffield Health had not properly engaged with her about returning.
The judge found that the disciplinary allegations against her should “never have been escalated to the degree they were”, and it was “wholly unreasonable to accuse [Ms Littlewood] of dishonesty” relating to the pay rates for classes.
She was awarded £149,017 in compensation and has since retired from competitive canoe polo; instead, she now coaches the Danish women’s canoe polo team.
