A former firefighter was not "set up to fail" nor felt to be fit and ready to return to work in more than two years' sick leave, an employment tribunal has heard. Julie

Wilkinson, 57, is claiming unfair dismissal and discrimination from a disability, and victimisation from making two previous claims including a successful sexual harassment claim in 2023.

Cleveland Fire Authority maintains it acted reasonably dismissing her in March 2024. The employment tribunal at Teesside Magistrates' Court heard how Ms Wilkinson's situation

related to mental health issues. She was on sickness absence from February 2022, on full pay until July 2023, but she asserts there were delays which prevented her returning to work. A

was extremely complex and may well have gone over the time limits". She said there was a reinvestigation after Ms Wilkinson "didn't feel it had been investigated thoroughly

in the first place". She added: "The grievance was dealt with in a timeframe that was necessary due to the complexity of it. It was only right that the investigating officer gave

the time to that investigation. "It would have been wholly inappropriate to rush the process to fit the timelines in policy and for the investigation to potentially not be

thorough." 'IT WOULD SURPRISE ME' Daren Cahill, representing Ms Wilkinson, said an outcome to the grievance took 111 days, and an appeal took 135 days: "It should have

been 14, and the question is why." He asked Ms Richardson if she knew why it took 280 days after Ms Wilkinson went off sick for her to be referred to occupational health. She replied:

"I don't. It would surprise me because our policies are very clear." She later said a referral might have been deemed unnecessary because of the grievance. An occupational

health report from December 2022 said Ms Wilkinson needed "psychological therapy" before returning to work. Asked about a letter saying Ms Wilkinson's pay would be reduced if

she did not return within a month, she denied insisting on a return, saying she merely advised about the authority's policy. Mr Cahill asked whether this was "setting Ms Wilkinson

up to fail" or rushing to therapy. Ms Richardson said "by no means" was this the case. 'WE NEVER HAD ANY INDICATION' She said if occupational health said someone was

fit to return to work, the authority would start looking at alternative roles: "We need to ensure the person is fit and ready to do a role before we can redeploy them. We have lots of

other options available. We can bring them back on modified duties, a phased return. "We never had any indication given to us from occupational health that Ms Wilkinson was at that

stage. If we had had some advice from occupational health we would have followed that." She was asked why they did not get a further occupational health report before the dismissal. She

said they already had three similar reports from three doctors and felt a further extension to a long period of sick leave was "unreasonable". 'SHE FELT SHE HADN'T HAD

APPROPRIATE WELFARE SUPPORT' Asked about her involvement with Ms Wilkinson, she said: "She felt she hadn't had appropriate welfare support. In an attempt to get Ms Wilkinson

back to work I took on that initial contact role. "I made an occupational health referral for her. I made endeavours to find an alternative welfare officer." She said she later had

to step back from this temporary support role as Ms Wilkinson took out two grievances against her. She said the authority would have offered Ms Wilkinson support and looked at modifications

to her role or reasonable adjustments and adaptations. Mr Cahill asked: "Did Ms Wilkinson placing two grievances against you influence your decision to reduce her pay to half?" Ms

Richardson answered: "Absolutely not." 'LACK OF INTEGRITY' She said Ms Wilkinson was invited to a hearing appealing against her dismissal, which would have been in front

of fire authority executive members. But the tribunal heard Ms Wilkinson did not attend and withdrew her appeal after she raised concerns over the "lack of integrity" and

"false premises" in the process. Mr Cahill said: "The panel consisted of individuals she placed grievances against. Ms Wilkinson felt it would not have been impartial. Her

mental health at the time was exacerbated by those involved." Ms Richardson said the panel members were local authority councillors, not fire service employees: "I'm not aware

there was a grievance against any of those panel members. "In my 16 years on the fire service there's one case that I'm aware of in the last two years that I was involved in,

where a dismissal was overturned and that individual returned to work." PROCEEDING JOIN TEESSIDE LIVE'S WHATSAPP COMMUNITY FOR TOP STORIES AND BREAKING NEWS SENT DIRECTLY TO YOUR

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