Industrial tribunal An Industrial Tribunal between Samantha Constance and BNDfC, Sheffield City Council and Burngreave Community Action Trust, was called off at the last minute after the two sides reached agreement. Confidentiality agreements forbid the parties from discussing the outcome, but the Messenger understands that Samantha received a settlement of £4,000. The award was made jointly between the City Council and BCAT, but the Council will foot the bill. Samantha was one of seven workers who lost their jobs last March in a staff reorganisation as the City Council became the ‘accountable body’. She claimed unfair dismissal due to a lack of proper consultation, insufficient effort being made to avoid the redundancies and because she had been doing the Finance Manager job advertised for at least six months and was therefore entitled to carry on in that role. Richard Belbin, union representative from ACTS representing Samantha was pleased with the outcome: “They have accepted that there was a lack of proper consultation – hopefully that will mean that should a redundancy situation ever happen again, it will be better handled. We did not push the full hearing because we were aware of the potential damage that might be caused to BCAT – a community organisation that was left with no choice but to make the redundancies demanded by the New Deal Partnership Board.” When asked for comment, BCAT Chair Pete Smith replied, “BCAT does not conduct its confidential matters in public. Thank you.” John Clark from BNDfC said “We weren’t involved in the award, as the case was between Sheffield City Council and Burngreave Community Action Trust.” Since leaving New Deal, Samantha has had a number of jobs in various financial departments, and has now moved to Utrecht in Holland, with her partner, Samuel.
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