Dr Malgorzata Stadnik-Borowiec v Southern Health and Social Care Trust & Health and Social Care Board (CASE REF: 727/12)

The claimant, a Polish GP, alleged discrimination on grounds of, inter alia, race and sex, breach of contract and unfair dismissal. The potentially unfair reasons for the dismissal advanced by the respondent were based on i) capability ii) some other substantial reason and iii) ‘statutory restriction’ argument. There were five separate incidents involving the claimant which led the employer to have serious misgivings about her ability to carry out her job. 

Whilst only one of them led to misconduct charges, others related to breaches of procedure or poor clinical judgement. The thrust of the claimant’s argument was that the ‘incidents’ should not at any stage have been viewed together