Employment

Care worker - local authority suspending care worker - method of suspension breaching implied term of confidence and trust - care worker entitled to sue for psychiatric illness caused by suspensionGogay v Hertfordshire County Council: CA (Peter Gibson, May and Hale LJJ): 26 July 2000

The claimant worked as a care assistant in a children's home.

A child made comments which might be construed as allegations of abuse and the defendant local authority resolved to make inquiries and immediately suspended the claimant; informing her that she had been accused of abuse.

The investigation found no case and the claimant was asked to return.

She worked for a time in other homes but had not worked since 1998 because of clinical depression caused substantially by the suspension.

The claimant succeeded in an action for damages and loss of earnings for personal injury caused by breach of her employment contract.

The judge awarded damages including a sum for private psychotherapy to enable her to return to work.

The authority appealed.

The claimant cross appealed for a further year's salary as the judge had suspended the original award pending the appeal.

Lisa Sinclair (instructed by Director of Law & Administration, Hertfordshire County Council, Hertford) for the authority; Paul Hollow (instructed by Lee Davies & Co, Harlow) for the claimant.

Held, dismissing the appeal and allowing the cross-appeal, that it did not follow that a staff member should be suspended simply because inquiries were being made about risk of harm to a child in residential care; that there was always a separate decision to be taken about the implications for staff; that a suspension informing the employee that she had been accused of abuse, where there was no reasonable and proper cause to do so, breached the implied term of confidence and trust in her employment contract and the employee was entitled to damages for psychiatric illness caused by the breach; and that, accordingly, the claimant was entitled to the damages awarded plus the amount sought in the cross-appeal.