A trainee accountant - Mrs Catherine Henderson - has been awarded more than £13,000 for unfair dismissal after being sacked for leaving work due to an emergency with her sick child.

The employment tribunal heard that Mrs Henderson began her employment with AccountsNet Limited - an accounting firm for small businesses - in October 2019.  She was dismissed five months later for leaving her work without permission from a manager.The tribunal were told that one of Mrs Henderson’s children required medical attention - as well as additional support and care due to their underlying condition.  Mrs Henderson had informed her bosses of the situation in January 2020 when she had to take three days off to care for the child - the first day’s absence being recorded as compassionate leave and the following two day’s absences were taken as unpaid leave.

After this, Mrs Henderson agreed a flexible working pattern with her line manager. It was decided that she would work from nine until three, with no lunch break, so she could be home for her child when school finished.

However, two months later - when Mrs Henderson returned from a week’s annual leave - she was asked to attend a more formal meeting to discuss her hours of work. During this meeting, she was informed by her bosses that the hours she was working were having a detrimental effect on the business. Mrs Henderson said she was unable to go back to full-time hours because of the support required by her child.

It was after returning to her desk that she received the text from her child’s school, stating that there was an emergency regarding the child. As the managers were all in another meeting, Mrs Henderson explained to her colleagues that she had to leave work to attend to her child and that she would call the practice manager later.

However, Mrs Henderson sent a text to the practice manager to explain her absence but did not phone her. The following day she texted again - saying she was unwell due to stress and had been signed off for two weeks by her GP. 

Three days later, Mrs Henderson received a dismissal letter, citing her ongoing absences and the fact that she had not telephoned her manager to report her absences, choosing to send text messages instead.  The dismissal letter also stated that Mrs Henderson was not acting in good faith by reporting herself as sick - when it was her child - and saying that her abrupt exit to collect her child without authorisation amounted to gross misconduct.

Mrs Henderson wrote to her employers to give reasons why she thought the dismissal was unfair - but was not allowed to appeal.

Employment Judge Eleanor Mannion said that the accountancy firm had made it clear that it did not have an issue with Mrs Henderson needing time off to care for an ill child, but they objected to the way she had left her place of work, not speaking to a manager beforehand.

The judge, however, agreed with Mrs Henderson that the text was sent “as soon as reasonably practicable”- and one day’s leave was a “reasonable period of time”.  Her claim for automatic unfair dismissal was successful and AccountNet Limited were ordered to pay her £13,080.55 for loss of earnings and statutory rights.  Her second claim of unfair dismissal citing her requests for flexible working hours was dismissed.