Vape row teacher whose menopause was 'made worse' by headteacher's demands to move to another school wins £60,000 payout

A teacher whose menopause was exacerbated after a ‘dismissive’ headteacher tried to force her to transfer to another school has won a £60,000 payout for unfair dismissal.

Allison Shearer sued South Lanarkshire Council at an employment tribunal after losing her job in Clydesdale Support Base, in Carluke.

Her workplace was part of Kear Campus, catering for special needs children in the local authority area, with multiple schools attached to it.

But after refusing headteacher Neil Govan’s order to transfer to a different school she was fired in September 2023 while still on sick leave with stress.

Ms Shearer, who qualified in 1987, told the tribunal she felt the move was a ‘punishment beating’ because she had objected to his request to supervise an asthmatic pupil vape during breaks.

She said she’d become ‘extremely anxious’ at the prospect of having to work at Kear Secondary School, in Blantyre, believing there were issues with violence, ineffective and authoritarian management, and a culture of blaming staff for being assaulted.

But her pleas about worsening menopause and mental health were ignored alongside the school’s own occupational health report and she was shown the door.

However, she is now in line for £61,074 in damages, after successfully suing the local authority for disability discrimination and unfair dismissal.

The tribunal ruling said that in May 2022: ‘Mr Govan suggested that supervising that pupil’s vaping was an aspect of the duty of care owed by teaching staff to pupils.

‘[Ms Shearer] objected to supervising the vaping, because she thought that it presented a risk of injury given that the pupil had asthma and that other strategies for relieving anxiety should be pursued as an alternative to underage vaping.’

The meeting ended, with the headteacher acknowledging he could not make staff supervise the pupil although wished them do so, but Ms Shearer thought Mr Govan ‘appeared angry and frustrated at her response’.

Just over a fortnight later, he visited the support base, and told her he had decided to move her to Kear Secondary School from August ‘because she was needed as an English teacher there’.

But she became ‘extremely anxious’ at the prospect of the move, which made her menopause worse and caused stress, anxiety and depression together with high blood pressure.

In August she had a ‘confidential menopause discussion’ with two senior female managers explaining how the relocation would be ‘detrimental to her health’ but was told she would have to move.

Ms Shearer went on sick leave with work-related stress, and when she went to occupational health a therapist found change of schools would ‘negatively impact her psychological health’ and to ‘support her wellbeing’ she should remain where she was.

She completed a stress risk assessment, but Mr Govan told deputy head Stewart Miller he did not feel ‘inclined’ to engage with it.

The tribunal said it showed Mr Govan to be ‘dismissive, intransigent and unhelpful’.

She submitted grievances, which were not upheld, and was eventually offered two other roles which were not suitable.

The teacher who had decades of experience was fired in September following year while she was still on sick leave as she was ‘not fit for work’.

Employment judge Mark Whitcombe said the school could have sent another one of its English teachers to take up the post.

He said: ‘No reasonable employer would have insisted that [Ms Shearer] teach at Kear Secondary School given the effect of that proposal on the claimant’s health.’

But he found there was ‘no evidence’ to support her claim that the vaping argument caused her transfer.

However, he upheld her complaints of disability discrimination and unfair dismissal.