A councillor who was sacked by a trade union after being hauled out of a Spanish pool by police during the Covid pandemic has lost her unfair dismissal case.
Jo Rust, 54, was captured on video being removed from a Tenerife hotel pool in March last year - two days after lockdown rules were announced.
The campaign organiser for UNISON, which represents healthcare workers, claimed she was unfairly dismissed and discriminated against for her far-left socialist views.
But a panel at London’s Employment Tribunal rejected her claims and said it was “reasonable” for the trade union to find her guilty of gross misconduct. It also found the decision had “no connection” to her political beliefs.
The panel said most trade union employees are socialists by the nature of their work.
In a witness statement Ms Rust said she was “unsure” of the Covid rules and decided to take one last swim before being confined to her hotel room on March 16.
The West Norfolk Borough Council councillor said: “I was told that we could use the spaces in the hotel but could not leave the hotel itself. Due to this, I used the swimming pool and was arrested.”
Ms Rust spent the night in cells “handcuffed in a bikini” and was taken to court the next day on charges of disobeying police - but was then released without prosecution.
The tribunal heard Ms Rust, from King’s Lynn, Norfolk, left the Canary Islands aware the video was on the internet and that, the next day, a journalist for the Daily Mail came to her house asking for comment.
She did not tell her manager on a catch-up phone call and UNISON only found out after being contacted by the paper later that day.
On her return, Ms Rust, who had worked for UNISON from 2015 up until her suspension in March 2020, had also posted on social media encouraging the public to follow lockdown restrictions, it was said.
She was instructed by union bosses not to speak to the press about what had happened in Tenerife but went on to give interviews to several more newspapers, the tribunal heard.
The independent councillor, who left Labour last year after standing for general election three times, said she felt “hung out to dry” after UNISON’s press team released a statement without speaking to her.
She said: “I felt like I had been left to fend for myself. I felt it was in my best interests to try to present a narrative which was more closely aligned with what I believe had happened.”
Sasha Savage, regional secretary for Suffolk, was asked to investigate the conduct of Ms Rust and said: “This was an extremely embarrassing situation at an extremely difficult time for the union.
“UNISON was trying to put messages out about healthcare workers and for the public to follow restrictions - for one of our health workers to do that, not obeying another country’s health restrictions, that’s what makes it serious.”
Ms Rust told the tribunal she “did not view herself as a public figure” and did not believe what had happened would impact on her employment.
When asked if she had a duty to refrain from activities that may bring the union into disrepute, Ms Rust said: “That is things like stealing and drink driving, when you put it into fundamentals, I went for a swim.”
Employment Judge Pavel Klimov said: “We have no difficulty in concluding that the respondent did not treat the claimant less favourably because of her political beliefs.
“Given the claimant’s position involving her campaigning for the general public to observe Covid rules, it would have been reasonable for her to expect that, in those circumstances, her breaching those rules was something that had sufficient connection with her employment.
“Therefore she was under a duty, in our judgement, to notify her employer.
“Even if the incident up to where a Daily Mail reporter turned up was understandable and perfectly forgivable, after that moment it would have been beyond any reasonable doubt the story was going to unravel and affect the union.”
A UNISON spokesperson said: "We are pleased that the employment tribunal has dismissed Jo Rust's claims. We did not discriminate against her for her political beliefs as she alleged. We disciplined and dismissed her in accordance with our disciplinary procedures.
"Jo Rust exercised her legal rights in the employment tribunal and after a four-day hearing today the judge rejected all her claims."
Ms Rust said she was disappointed by the tribunal’s outcome.
