Carol Hill is the school dinner lady who committed the heinous crime of telling the parents – what’s it got to do with them? – of Chloe David that she had been bullied at school. Tsk!
Carol didn’t actually realise that she was imparting privileged information to them, she is old fashioned enough to believe that the school would already have told them. Tsk!
Carol had found 7 year old Chloe bound to a chain-link fence with rope burns on her wrist and whip marks on her legs.
The school had reduced this information to the neutral report that she had been ‘involved in a skipping rope incident’. They were not best pleased to find that Carol Hill had innocently told her parents the full story.
They sacked her.
Last month, after waiting 19 months for justice, an employment tribunal ruled that she had been unfairly sacked.
This week, another tribunal has awarded her the grand sum of £302.73 for the fact that the correct procedures hadn’t been followed.
Had the correct procedures been followed, she should have received £352.81 in pay whilst suspended – but although this was awarded to her, it was then slashed to £49.09 on the grounds that ‘she shared some of the blame’ for having talked to the press.
The nub of the matter is – she lost her job illegally for telling the truth, and now her compensation has been cut to £49.09 for continuing to tell the truth – to the press. Essex County Council after the tribunal hearing on Wednesday said the Headmistress and the governors were ‘delighted that the employment tribunal agreed… Mrs Hill’s actions warranted her dismissal’.
I’m outraged. How dare they gloat at having fired this lady for telling the truth?
This lady earned the princely sum of £6.20 a day – not a fortune, and from what I have been able to find out about her, a sum sorely needed in her household.
The Penguin has asked if my readers would contribute to a fund to support Carol Hill – and I am more than happy to do so. The price of a pint from each of you will go some way towards redressing the injustice that Carol Hill has suffered.
The donate button below goes to a dedicated account for Carol Hill. There will be no deductions – every penny collected will go directly to her, and I’m sure my readers will join me in wishing her well in the future.
(Tomorrow morning this PayPal button will be moving to the side bar, it will still be connected to the dedicated account for Carol Hill).
Edited to add: If anyone is having serious troubles with Paypal, e-mail me on annaraccoon2010@gmail.com and I will give you a bank account number that you can transfer your donation to in England.
It won’t be the dedicated account in France – believe me, you don’t even want to try paying an English cheque into a French bank account – but I can guarantee you that every penny will reach Carol.
SBML is the landlord of the Raccoon Arms. He lives North of Watford and has an eclictic range of interests from Science and Technology to Politics including Woodwork and Genealogy. His political viewpoint has evolved from being a student demonstrator to more liberal views and has now seen the light in Libertarianism.
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Times are a bit hard here at the Abbey, but hopefully I can be the first to contribute – assuming I have mastered paypal!
G the M
I was going to contribute a fiver – no fortune but every little helps – because I agree with what you say. But I was defeated by PayPal – en Francais!
Had this problem with the Libertarian Party but quickly resolved by their giving me their BACS sort code and account number. Then no names, addresses, passwords and endless spam for Paypal, just a quick internet payment.
Can you do likewise?
Indeed I can Peter, and for anyone else defeated by the Froglaise.
You should try setting up the Paypal from France……carpet biting time, I assure you.
I struggled at first because (a)I always switch off cookie reception and (b) I made the mistake of entering a full stop before the pence (instead of a comma – at least that’s what I think went wrong because your local PayPal scolded me for entering an invalid amount). Once I fixed those two things it was plain sailing.
Yes, I didn’t realise that the page would come up in French……and you are quite right, in France 25.50 is written 25,50 using a comma not a full stop. I always have to think twice before I write out a cheque here – that and the fact that the cheques are back to front (to me!) the amount goes on the top line, and the payee on the next line down, the exact reverse of the way I have been writing cheques for 40 odd years. Takes some doing to train yourself out of long time habits, and I’ve torn up more cheques than I’ve written!
I must say, you are all being extremely generous, even those of you too shy to comment. Thank-you.
A Tenner is on it’s way. I hope she has a stiff drink or two.
Is this a typo?:
“This lady earned the princely sum of £6.20 a day”
No, regrettably not a typo – they only employed her for one hour a day. It was a very humble part time job.
Excellent idea! I’ve got a post on this cued up for the weekend myself; I’ll link to this.
Tenner from me, too. I have every sympathy with this lady.
Slightly off topic, but on the topic of sharing the blame for something that is not illegal and therefore having their compensation deducted accordingly read this.
A nurse who happened to be on top of an unconcious man having a fit was fired from her job because of inappropriate behaviour. Her crime – to jokingly say “it’s been a long time since I’ve had a man underneath me like this”.
Her punishment because even though the appeal court says that she should not have been fired for a single comment she should still not have made the comment – and deducted 25% from her compensation.
Where is the world going to? Common sense has jumped out of the window. Opps! I’ll get reported for being offensive to suicidal people now.
French paypal mutter, mutter.
Job done, eventually
Once upon a time milkmen noticed when people were ill and dinner ladies were relied upon to ensure children behaved and were safe, at lunchtime and playtimes. When did it all go wrong? It’d be easy to blame NuLab, but these politically-correct, mentally-straitjacketed, humourless oafs were in the ascendent long before the blessed Tony came down from heaven to save us.
We’re doomed, doomed a tell thee!
Figured out Frog Paypal……. eventually.
I was outraged by this lady’s sacking and the verbal abuse she suffered right from the very beginning of this farcical situation. Any parent would be grateful for such honesty and the way she immediately stopped the playground bullying as soon as she saw it happening……. but not, of course, the Lefty, Common Purpose teaching establishment!
A tenner is on its way.
If you can come up with an alternative to PayPal I’ll certainly bung some dosh in the kitty. I looked into setting up an account with PP previously, but I’m damned if I will part with all the personal details they want…
And a round of applause to “sixtypoundsaweekcleaner” for making the suggestion at Pengys.
*Takes a bow*
Anna, excellent proposal but given the comments above, can you just supply a forwarding address to send cheques to made out to Carol Hill – her local pub or something!
My, you are a generous lot!
If anyone is having serious troubles with Paypal, e-mail me on annaraccoon2010@gmail.com and I will give you a bank account number that you can transfer your donation to in England.
It won’t be the dedicated account in France – believe me, you don’t even want to try paying an English cheque into a French bank account – but I can guarantee you that every penny will reach Carol.
Had to make a donation. Good luck to Carol, and may bad things happen to the scumbags who fired her.
French PayPal is a doddle – took less than 30 seconds. Although the internet in French is just weird. ‘Connectez-vous’, lol.
Done! Paypal France wants a comma after the stg amount and then TWO ZEROS for pence, if a whole number of Pounds stg is typed. Othrwise it’s fine.
All these effing GramscoStaliNazis, to whom all our children, it seems, belong, will have to go. In the end, the only thing that liberals like all of us will need to decide – and it is really the only important decision to take – is whether there is actually a place for them on this planet.
Their problem is that, to be a GSN means “never having to say you’re sorry”. They will never give in, nere apologise and never change: so forgiveness may not be able to be on the table as an option.
Great idea and I have made a donation via the PayPal site. This story really got me annoyed, mind you most things in the UK do these days, but it was the effect all of this has had on this woman’s life and, no doubt, her health. The tribunal and the actions of the school head and anyone else involved have been vindictive and cruel. Bastards the lot of them and I hope their lives come crashing down around their petty, mean little unimportant lives soon.
Yup, this normally tight-arsed git donated too.
The story really touched a nerve and seems to exemplify the sheer wrong-headedness of a post-NuLab society, peopled by echelons of PC drones.
Truly worthy of Lewis Carroll.
Won a couple of quid on a lottery (GramscoStaliNazi) scratch card, just now, so I have sent it to you.
Bugger the fucker statists, for a start.