Alison O’Mahony was contructively dismissed from the Priory Hospital in Bromley after she insisted on working from home in the first stage of the Covid pandemic
(Picture: PA)A therapist at the Priory who was forced out of her job after insisting on working from home during the Covid pandemic has won a £40,000 payout.
Alison O’Mahony said she was protecting the safety of herself, colleagues, and patients when she refused to travel in to the mental health facility in Bromley from March to August 2020.
The government had imposed the first Covid lockdown, but the therapist found herself at loggerheads with bosses who insisted she could only lead treatment sessions in-person.
Last year, Ms O’Mahony won an employment tribunal brought against Priory Healthcare Limited when a judge concluded she had been unfairly docked wages and then constructively dismissed.
She had now been awarded £40,332 for loss of earnings, injury to her feelings, and unpaid wages.
An employment tribunal in Croydon heard Ms O’Mahony had worked since 2015 as a therapist at the Priory Hospital in Hayes Grove, treating patients with eating disorders.
After former Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered the first Covid lockdown, Ms O’Mahony told bosses on March 23, 2020 that she would be working from home and could continue with treatment sessions by phone.
“During the coronavirus crisis, it is socially responsible for me to stay away from premises where I may spread the illness or be affected by it”, she wrote in an email. “The Government has also made this law.
“I therefore inform you that I do not intend to return to the Priory premises until it is safe to do so. Of course I am very happy to work from home, giving consultations by telephone. This is mandated practice in the NHS.”
Her managers insisted “confidentiality and governance issues” blocked the possibility of remote sessions, and said she must come in to work.
The tribunal heard Ms O’Mahony lodged a grievance about the clinic’s “repeated refusal” to support her working from home, and also accused bosses of failing to provide a Covid-safe working environment.
Ms O’Mahony’s pay was docked as the stand-off continued and she complained to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), highlighting that colleagues who had gone into work contracted Covid alongside patients.
In June, the HSE found the clinic was breaking Covid guidelines, including on social distancing and cleaning.
Ms O’Mahony eventually resigned in September 2020 after her bosses initiated disciplinary proceedings.
Judge Katherine Andrews concluded Priory bosses had been “inflexible” in the early stages of the pandemic, adopting a “dogmatic application of policy” and failing to properly considered if Ms O’Mahony could successfully work from home.
She said that while the clinic was entitled to organise its own working practices, the grievance process that Ms O’Mahony went through had “many flaws”.
And she ruled that Ms O’Mahony had a “reasonable belief in circumstances of danger” when she refused to attend work between March and August.
A Priory spokesperson said: “As a learning organisation we have reviewed the decision carefully. We do, of course, respect the decision and will comply with the findings.”
