Sellafield HR boss tells tribunal mistrust ended contract

A director at the Sellafield nuclear site accused of ending a consultant's contract because she was a whistleblower said she made the decision because of "mistrust".

HR consultant Alison McDermott claims her contract was ended in 2018 when she reported allegations of harassment.

HR director Heather Roberts accepted her report "wasn't an easy read".

But she said she ended the contract because of financial constraints and concerns about Ms McDermott's approach.

Ms McDermott told an employment tribunal in Leeds she lost her job after she wrote a report covering allegations of "vile" homophobic abuse, sexual harassment and bullying at the Cumbria site.

Ms Roberts said the report, which highlighted a number of negative comments, including "devastating criticism" about herself, was unbalanced.

The tribunal heard some members of staff said their positive comments were not included in the report and concerns were also raised about an invoice from Ms McDermott for £23,000 for three weeks' work.

Ms Roberts denied she terminated Ms McDermott's contract because of her whistleblowing.

She told the tribunal the reason was "absolutely not" Ms McDermott's criticism of her leadership and of the HR management team.

Ms Roberts said she would have looked elsewhere to budget for Ms McDermott's costs if she thought the company was getting "value for money" but, by that time, there was a "lack of trust".

"I asked her to do a piece of work and, the way she carried it out, I then began to mistrust asking her to do stuff," she said.

Ms McDermott, who runs Interim Diversity Limited, was paid £1,500 a day to monitor equality, diversity and inclusion at the nuclear fuel reprocessing and decommissioning site in September 2018.

She has taken Sellafield, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Ms Roberts to tribunal.

The hearing will continue on Friday.

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