Employment tribunal finds marketing manager from Bourne firm Opico was unfairly dismissed

The marketing manager of a town business was unfairly dismissed after being called a ‘witch’ and a ‘man hater’ by colleagues.

Helen Selkin had been suspended from Opico, which sells agricultural machinery and is based in Cherry Holt Road, Bourne, after fellow employee Mikey Vernall eavesdropped a conversation she was having in an office with two other colleagues.

He submitted a grievance against her, saying she had stated that all men should have vasectomies which could only be reversed with a woman’s permission.

He also said she had been ‘very defensive and aggressive’ when a different view was offered, and that the colleagues she was speaking with were ‘uncomfortable’ and had asked for the conversation to end.

Rather than investigate the grievance, Opico managing director James Woolway and a personal assistant held a meeting with Mrs Selkin at which she was suspended.

Mrs Selkin asked to see the complaint at that meeting but was told she would receive details in a letter.

The next day she received a letter inviting her to a disciplinary hearing for ‘gross misconduct’.

Despite the involvement of HR company Peninsula, which Opico had on a retainer, Employment Judge Heap was not impressed by the way the disciplinary hearing was conducted, which found against Mrs Selkin, nor that Peninsula advised Opico it could dismiss someone over the phone. Judge Heap called this ‘curious advice’ and ‘a cold way to treat an employee of almost six years’.

Mrs Selkin’s subsequent appeal was dismissed by Peninsula, and so she took it to an employment tribunal, which was heard in Nottingham.

Judge Heap found Mrs Selkin’s claims of unfair and wrongful dismissal were correct, but that her further allegations of sex discrimination and victimisation were not.

Despite this, Judge Heap determined that language used about Mrs Selkin while she was employed by Opico, between April 2017 and March 2023, created a ‘humiliating and offensive environment’ and was ‘belittling’, including an email to colleagues referring to her as a ‘witch’, and a comment in which Mr Woolway told her “don’t spend too much, you’re not shopping for a dress”.

The judge concluded that Opico managing director Mr Woolway and sales director Charles Bedforth had ‘traditional’ views that may not be acceptable today, adding: “Tradition is on occasion to be applauded but not at the expense of progression and inclusion.”

Mrs Selkin's compensation is now being determined.