£42k payout | Victory for employee who was refused WFH request during lockdown

A therapist who lost her job after insisting she worked from home during the pandemic has been awarded £42,000 by an employment tribunal.

Alison O’Mahony, a therapist at the Priory in Kent, said she had not wanted to risk her own health, or the health of others by working from the mental health facility when she felt her work could “absolutely” be done from home during lockdown.

The row unfolded shortly after then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the UK’s first ever lockdown, as COVID-19 spread uncontrollably across the country. Official Government guidance at the time was that travelling to and from work was allowed, but only when the job could categorically not be done remotely.

In an email to her employer, O’Mahony wrote: “I remain of the view that I should not physically come into the Priory because I do not want to compromise either my health or others', nor go against the Government's legally-enforceable advice.”