Wellbeing | AstraZeneca wrongly sacked Dr whose mental health impacted behaviour towards colleagues

AstraZeneca was wrong to sack a senior scientist whose mental health affected his behaviour towards colleagues, a UK employment tribunal has found.

Dr Muir, who had worked for the pharmaceutical giant since 1998, and was a leading scientist in the firm’s development of a drug called Truqap, recently approved in the US to treat some forms of breast cancer.

He was sacked in December 2020 after bosses found him guilty of “repeated inappropriate conduct” towards several colleagues “which amounts to bullying and harassment.”

Among the incidents were claims that Dr Muir displayed “inappropriate conduct during a team meeting” and “unprofessional/inappropriate business emails” , which were reportedly aggravated by his frustrations about a stressful project and lack of management support.