A high-performing mortgage adviser who was fired after raising concerns about overtime has been awarded £23,000 in damages.
Helen McMahon was working as a £27,000-a-year adviser for financial consultancy firm Heron Financial Ltd when she expressed concerns about her hours worked.
The employee, who often carried out 12-hour shifts with no break, told her manager she was working more than 48-hours a week.
Her high-pressured role included going to housing developments to meet clients across the Chilterns.
Ms McMahon told boss Robin Thomas she was "stressed" because of her schedule.
In May 2019, she emailed her boss about unpaid commission in her latest pay slip then took two weeks off through stress before asking to meet manager.
But days later Ms McMahon was fired for “always moaning”.
Heron Financial Ltd claimed her dismissal was for poor performance, despite earlier rewarding her work with a bottle of champagne.
A tribunal in Cambridge heard that Mrs McMahon worked at the firm for two years from June 2017 and could work 12 hours a day without a lunch break.
“I said I was working more than 48 hours a week,” she told the tribunal, “that it was stressing me out and that I wanted somehow to reduce my hours.”
Two days later Ms McMahon was asked to see company founder Warren Harrocks, who told her she was being let go with no explanation.
The firm in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, told the tribunal Ms McMahon was fired over performance concerns.
Mr Harrocks claimed he was unaware she had raised concerns with her boss.
But judge Sarah King said: “This was a small business and the directors discussed matters regularly. It is clear that during the meeting Mrs McMahon asserted a number of statutory rights. Mr Thomas felt she was "moaning" as she was "always moaning".”
She ruled the sacking was unfair and awarded Mrs McMahon £20,000 for the dismissal plus £3,500 for unlawful wage deduction, unpaid commission, sick pay and wrongful dismissal.
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned long working hours are killing hundreds of thousands of people a year.
The first global study of its kind showed 745,000 people died in 2016 from stroke and heart disease due to long hours.
The report found that people living in South East Asia and the Western Pacific region were the most affected.
The research found that working 55 hours or more a week was associated with a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease, compared with a working week of 35 to 40 hours.
The study, conducted with the International Labour Organization (ILO), also showed almost three quarters of those that died as a result of working long hours were middle-aged or older men.
Often, the deaths occurred much later in life, sometimes decades later, than the long hours were worked.
