THE UNIVERSITY of Edinburgh has been ordered to pay £1.1m to an engineering professor whose employment was terminated in 2012.
After a 13-year employment tribunal, a unanimous judgement decided that Professor Roya Sheikholeslami was unfairly dismissed, and should be paid the six-figure sum by the university.
Professor Sheikholeslami was in the school of engineering and held the chair of chemical process engineering from 2007 to 2012.
The payment covers a past economic loss of £742,776.51, with added interest of £361,416.01.
In January 2010, Sheikholeslami was diagnosed with work-related stress and depression, and took time off work, during which her salary was reduced to half-pay and eventually no pay.
Her employment was terminated on April 12, 2012, which the university states was due to her work visa reaching its expiration date.
This meant that Professor Sheikholeslami was unable to work, access the NHS, and could not leave Scotland without being unable to return.
As well as a claim for unfair dismissal, she also claimed that in the course of her employment she suffered discrimination on the grounds of her disability and sex.
These claims were dismissed in 2016, though the claim of unfair dismissal succeeded and the tribunal continued.
In 2020, Sheikholeslami was paid around £57,000 in respect to her claims but appealed the remedy judgement as the tribunal decided that the university had failed to explore the options surrounding the possibility of Sheikholeslami returning to work.
For this reason, they found that she should be awarded economic loss based on an 80% chance that she would have returned to work the year after her termination, and would have remained there until she was 66 (which was in 2022).
She is also to be awarded an additional payment based on the 60% chance that she would have remained employed beyond this to the age of 70.
This adds up to £609,433.80, to which an uplift of £133,342.71 was added for injury to feelings, bank costs, NHS costs, and bankruptcy costs.
Part of the total £1.1m is also a payment under Section 207A of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
The case of unfair dismissal was continually resisted by the university, a spokesperson for which said: “While we respect the judgment, we do not comment on individual cases and won’t provide a further statement on the matter.”