Sick pay for six years enough rules job tribunal

Although Anna Yerrakalva yesterday won her claim for unfair dismissal, employment judge Stephen Shore said the compensation would be reduced by 100 per cent due to “lies and dissimilitudes that leave the credibility of her testimony in tatters”.

Mrs Yerrakalva claimed a teaching assistant had an epileptic fit in a classroom and fell on top of her, leaving her with chest, neck and spine injuries.

But an investigation at Dearne Carrfield Primary School in Bolton-on-Dearne, South Yorkshire, found the claim was made up.

The teacher, 58, won an unfair dismissal claim against the school governors and Barnsley Council, in that she was prevented from returning to work. The case has cost Barnsley Council more than £300,000 in wages and legal costs.

Mrs Yerrakalva went off sick after the accident in November 2003, and briefly returned – only to be struck by a bus – in June 2004. She has never worked since.

She was on full pay of about £30,000 a year until she was suspended in 2009 and finally sacked in January 2010.

The Sheffield hearing was told she also claimed benefits, saying she was disabled, yet at the same time she told the council she was perfectly fit to return to work.

In his judgment, Mr Shore said Mrs Yerrakalva was a “thoroughly unreliable witness”.

The tribunal concluded the school governors and Barnsley Council gave no “credible or cogent” explanation for their failure to allow Mrs Yerrakalva to return to work.

However, the judgment found that Mrs Yerrakalva “contributed to her own unfair dismissal by a factor of 100 per cent.”

Barnsley Council has yet to comment.