A Keith care worker who won an unfair dismissal case is still waiting for her £30,000 payout after the firm went bust.
Lesley Bristow says her confidence has been “taken away” because of her treatment at the hands of Craigard Care Limited.
The 70-year-old took the company to an employment tribunal earlier this year after she was constructively dismissed and discriminated against.
Ms Bristow took time off work after having carpal tunnel surgery on both her wrists during 2021.
The Aberdeen Tribunal heard that after an extended period off work following the surgery, she requested a phased return to work on the orders of her doctor.
Aggressive treatment
But during a return to work meeting a senior member of staff responded to her request saying: “Don’t think you can just swan in here when you feel like it and say you’re coming back to work. It doesn’t work like that.”
The judge, Nicol Hosie, determined that Lesley was disabled in respect of carpal tunnel syndrome and so her complaints of unlawful disability discrimination and a failure to make reasonable adjustments were well founded.
Craigard Care Ltd was consequently ordered to pay her £29,218.88, but the company went into administration in March this year, so full payment now seems unlikely.
Ms Bristow has lost confidence and is “too scared” to leave her home.
She said: “They should not have taken my job. It has taken all my self-confidence away. It all seems so unfair.
“Still affecting my life – I hardly ever go out.
“I’ve been a hairdresser and a long-distance lorry driver – so I was never a nervy person.”
‘If you can’t do a full shift, there’s no job here for you’
After more than two years into her employment, Lesley underwent surgery to treat her wrists in January 2021, but complications from the procedures meant she suffered pins and needles in her hands and was consequently absent from work for a total of 14 months.
In February 2022, she met with her line manager to discuss a return to work, where she expressed her desire to have a phased return to manage her symptoms.
Her doctor had recommended that she begin with “light duties” starting with two-to-three-hour shifts.
Another manager, Janene Whyte, was present for the meeting and, according to the tribunal, responded to Lesley’s request by saying: “Don’t think you can just swan in here when you feel like it and say you’re coming back to work. It doesn’t work like that – we don’t have light duties.
“If you can’t do a full shift, there’s no job here for you. If you think you’re going to work with the girls going home knackered and you leaving fresh as a daisy, that’s not going to happen.”
‘I loved my job’
Lesley recalls the meeting and said: “She was so aggressive – I don’t know if she got out of the wrong side of the bed or what, but she was ranting and raving at me. She said there was no job for me.
“I loved my job. I’d never been a carer before – but I loved it. I got to know all the residents and got on with them all really well.
“I had hoped I would have retired by now and my dream was to buy a little camper van and go and visit my family down south. I won’t be able to do that now. I can’t get another job, no one wants a 70-year-old.”
Not much hope
Ms Bristow’s employment defence agent Euphemia Matheson, of Livingstone Brown, explained that her client was now registered as an unsecured creditor with the administrators FRP Advisory but wasn’t holding out much hope for payment.
She said: “Lesley is in limbo. The tribunal have found in her favour and she has a judgment vindicating her and entitling her to compensation.
“The problem is that she can’t enforce that judgement. Her employer is in administration and a claim has been lodged which was confirmed on August 1, 2023.”
Care homes have been sold
The sale of the companies’ three care homes – Wakefield House Care Home in Buckie, Weston View Care Home in Keith, and Riverside Nursing Home in Aberdeen – went through this month for an undisclosed price according to Christie and Co estate agents acting on behalf of the administrators FRP Advisory.
A spokesman for FRP Advisory said: “The joint administrators expect the administration will close within the next 12 months.
“Claims from former employees which are not in respect of outstanding wages or holiday pay will be unsecured creditors and unlikely to receive any payment from the administration.”
Former managing director for Craigard Care Ltd, Steven Cowie was approached for comment but said he was “unable” to speak on its behalf having been made redundant himself in March.
He said: “The administrators have and continue to hold all authority on the company. I was not kept on. I have been unemployed since March.”
