A long-serving Southampton City Council school transport employee has taken the local authority to tribunal over claims she was unlawfully dismissed and discriminated.
Teri Munday worked as a transport coordination officer at the council for more than 20 years.
She was dismissed by redundancy last year following a restructure of the department.
Mrs Munday says she was not able to accept a new role post-reorganisation as it required her to be entirely office based and it did not offer the shift pattern flexibility she needed.
Her claims for unlawful dismissal, discrimination on the grounds of disability and discrimination on the grounds of sex are being considered at an employment tribunal this week.
Southampton City Council denies all of the allegations of unlawful conduct.
The tribunal sitting in Southampton heard Mrs Munday’s employment at the local authority ended in July 2024.
This was after the reorganisation of the school transport team, which the council says was aiming to achieve service improvements.
Mrs Munday, who lives in Lyndhurst, had worked on Monday, Wednesday and Friday so she was able to look after her grandchildren on Tuesday and Thursday.
The claimant said being able to work discontinuous days supported her disability of anxiety, with the childcare being like therapy for her.
She said being able to work from home allowed her to cope with the office’s “toxic environment”.
Under the restructure the council insisted on staff in the transport service working consecutive days and this put her at a disadvantage, Mrs Munday said.
The council said consecutive days were required for effective service delivery, including to reduce the number of staff handovers.
On the first day of the hearing on Monday, June 1, the employment tribunal panel, led by Judge James Dawson, ruled Mrs Munday’s stage three chronic kidney disease was not a disability at the relevant time under the Equality Act.
The claimant said she was diagnosed with the disease more than 20 years ago and her symptoms included muscles spasms, high blood pressure and fatigue.
The panel found the impairment was not substantial based on the evidence before them.
The tribunal is scheduled to last five days.
