Woman who did not get leaving card loses UK employment claim

Managers did not give Karen Conaghan her leaving card because of the low number of signatures

The woman worked for IAG, the parent company of British Airways (Simon Calder)

A woman who sued her former employer over not being given a leaving card lost her case when it was revealed it had been hidden from her after only three people signed it.

Karen Conaghan claimed that the lack of a leaving card was a “failure to acknowledge her existence” at IAG, the parent company of British Airways, and a breach of equality law.

However, a former colleague told an employment tribunal that managers had indeed bought a card but did not present it to Ms Conaghan because of the low number of signatures.

Conaghan, a former business liaison lead, brought 40 complaints against the company for sexual harassment, victimisation and unfair dismissal.

But the tribunal dismissed every claim, with the judge concluding that Conaghan, who started working at the company in 2019, had adopted a “conspiracy-theory mentality” in the workplace.

Ms Conaghan worked for IAG, the parent company of British Airways (PA Wire)

Judge Kevin Palmer said that although further signatures were gathered on the leaving card after her departure, a former colleague took the view that “it was inappropriate to send such a card to [her] at a later date as she had raised a grievance against him and [another colleague]”.

Many of the acts cited in the claim “either did not happen or, if they did happen, they were innocuous interactions in the normal course of employment”, the judge ruled.

He said that there was no evidence to suggest that any of Conaghan’s allegations were in any way related to her sex and that one of the allegations was indicative of her “view of normal interactions being something more sinister”.

Ms Conaghan moved to Richmond, North Yorkshire, in September 2021 despite it being expected that all employees live within two hours of the office in Heathrow, the tribunal heard.

She was made redundant in the same year as part of a restructuring of the organisation, with colleagues saying in evidence that many people also left around the same time.