Woman in UK loses lawsuit against company for not giving her a farewell card
A woman in the UK has lost a lawsuit against her former employer after claiming they failed to give her a farewell card upon her departure.
The company, however, did prepare a card — but as the card received so few signatures, they ultimately decided it would be best not to give it to her.
According to The Guardian, the woman, Karen Conaghan, filed a suit against International Airlines Group (IAG), which owns British Airways, alleging the company did not properly acknowledge her as part of her departure.
Managers withheld farewell card, fearing it would be ‘insulting’
Conaghan, who was a former business liaison lead, claimed the lack of a farewell card was a breach of equality law and a “failure to acknowledge her existence”, said The Independent.
However, a colleague refuted her claim, explaining that a card had indeed been prepared.
Because only three colleagues had signed it, managers decided it would be more offensive to give her the sparsely signed card than to withhold it.
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“He believed it would have been more insulting to give her the card than not to give her a card at all,” the judge noted.
Additionally, two other men who were laid off around the same time also did not receive cards of their own.
All complaints dismissed
Conaghan brought more than 40 complaints against the company, including accusations of sexual harassment, victimisation, and unfair dismissal.
Among her claims, she cited a situation where a colleague had copied her by using the word “whiz” but corrected her spelling to “whizz”.
Additionally, her unfair dismissal claim revealed that Conaghan had moved Richmond, North Yorkshire, in September 2021, more than two hours away from London Heathrow.
This was despite company expectations that all employees live within two hours of the office in Heathrow.
She was made redundant in the same year as part of a restructuring of the organisation. Many employees also left around the same time as a part of the restructuring.
The judge concluded that many of her complaints “either did not happen” or were “innocuous interactions” she had misinterpreted.
He described her view as a “conspiracy-theory mentality” and dismissed the case.
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Featured image adapted from on Junseong Lee on Unsplash and Kate Macate on Unsplash.
