Scottish teacher who was sacked after she refused to move schools because it 'worsened her menopause' wins more than £60,000 in a discrimination case
A Scottish teacher who was sacked after she refused to move schools because it 'worsened her menopause' has won more than £60,000 in a discrimination case.
Allison Shearer won the compensation payout after headteacher Neil Govan ordered her to transfer to a different school in their education organisation.
Ms Shearer became 'extremely anxious' due to a number of issues that plagued the new school and her menopausal symptoms were exacerbated, a tribunal heard.
The English teacher feared being assaulted by pupils at the next school, believing there to be 'high levels of violence and injuries to teaching staff'.
Ms Shearer believed her transfer was a 'punishment beating' because days before she objected to Mr Govan suggesting she should supervise a pupil vaping at school.
Her pleas about her worsening menopause and mental health were ignored — as well as the school's own Occupational Health report — and she was eventually sacked.
Now, she has successfully sued South Lanarkshire Council in Scotland, which runs the school, for disability discrimination and unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal.
Ms Shearer, who taught at Clydesdale Support Base in Carluke, has been awarded £61,074 in damages.
Allison Shearer won the compensation payout after headteacher Neil Govan (pictured) ordered her to transfer to a different school in their education organisation
The Glasgow tribunal heard Ms Shearer qualified in 1987 and from 2015 taught English at Clydesdale Support Base. Pictured: Kear Campus in Bardykes Rd, Blantyre, Glasgow
The Glasgow tribunal heard Ms Shearer qualified in 1987 and from 2015 taught English at Clydesdale Support Base.
The base is part of Kear Campus, which teaches special needs children in South Lanarkshire and has multiple schools attached to it.
In June 2022, Kear Campus head Mr Govan attended Clydesdale Support Base and told her he'd decided to move her to Kear Secondary School in Blantyre.
At the time, she suffered menopausal symptoms, stress, anxiety and depression, as well as high blood pressure.
She believed she was being moved because just days before, Mr Govan suggested she 'supervise' a pupil who wanted to vape in every one of the seven periods of the day.
Ms Shearer objected to the underage vaping and Mr Govan became 'angry and frustrated'.
The tribunal heard Ms Shearer became 'anxious' about the prospect of moving to Kear School as she believed that there were 'high levels of violence and injuries to teaching staff at that school, that management were ineffective and authoritarian, and that there was a culture of blaming staff for being assaulted'.
'[Ms Shearer] felt that it was inevitable that she would be assaulted, that she would not be supported when it happened and that she would be blamed for the incident', a tribunal report said.
'She was concerned that her high blood pressure would worsen and that her levels of anxiety and low mood could become difficult to manage.
'Over the following weeks [Ms Shearer] had regular nightmares and disrupted sleep.
'She found it difficult to think about anything except the move to Kear School.
The base is part of Kear Campus, which teaches special needs children in South Lanarkshire and has multiple schools attached to it. Pictured: Kear Campus
'A planned reduction in the prescribed dose of fluoxetine was deferred because the claimant's levels of stress and anxiety were too high. The symptoms of the menopause also worsened.'
Ms Shearer objected on health grounds.
In August 2022 she had a 'confidential menopause discussion' with two senior female managers and explained it would be 'detrimental to her health' but she was still told she'd have to move.
She went on sick leave with work-related stress and visited Occupational Health.
An OH therapist found that a move could 'negatively impact her psychological health' and that in order to 'support her wellbeing' she should stay at her current location.
Ms Shearer completed a stress risk assessment that was advised by Occupational Health, but the tribunal said it was 'revealing' how Mr Govan responded to it.
After she completed the assessment, Mr Govan told deputy head Stewart Miller he did not feel 'inclined' to engage with it, saying: 'This may not be what you're looking for but it's the best I can (well, will) do as I don't feel inclined to respond to each point.'
The tribunal said it showed Mr Govan to be 'dismissive, intransigent and unhelpful'.
Ms Shearer submitted grievances, which were not upheld, and was eventually offered two other job roles which were not suitable.
She was fired in September 2023 while she was still off work as she was 'not fit for work'.
Employment Judge Mark Whitcombe said the school could have sent another one of its English teachers to take up the post.
Judge Whitcombe said: '[Ms Shearer's aggravated symptoms and sickness absence were inextricably linked to the instruction that she should move to work at Kear Secondary School.
'That link was well-established by evidence. Not only was it [her] own position, which we find to be credible and which we accept, but the same link was made by the occupational health evidence in the [school's] possession.
'The overwhelming likelihood was that [Ms Shearer's] absence would end if she were allowed to work at any other suitable location in any other suitable role.
'No reasonable employer would have insisted that [Ms Shearer] teach at Kear Secondary School given the effect of that proposal on [her] health,
the fact that the needs of Kear Secondary School could reasonably have been met in other ways, and the fact that the teaching of English at
Clydesdale base was being carried out by a teacher engaged on a temporary basis.'
The judge said Ms Shearer was a 'talented, experienced and successful teacher'.
The judge said there was 'no evidence' to support her claim that the vaping argument caused her transfer.
