CHESHIRE East Council’s suspended chief operating officer has denied telling an employee to withdraw concerns she believed she raised as a whistleblower before she was dismissed.

Sue Wallace, a former senior HR officer, has taken the council to an employment tribunal after she was dismissed in December 2016 – just weeks after she produced a report which suggests the council may have underpaid care workers in ‘sleep-in shifts’.

At a hearing in Manchester on Thursday, she accused Peter Bates of asking if she should withdraw concerns she believed she raised through CEC’s whistleblowing process during a meeting at Knutsford services on December 15, 2016.

The tribunal heard that she was due to discuss the concerns at a meeting with Frank Jordan, executive director of place, the following day – before her contract at the council came to an end on December 31, 2016.

Ms Wallace, representing herself as the claimant in the tribunal, told Mr Bates: “I raised four grievances and four concerns regarding the whistleblowing.

“My question is whether you asked me if the issue could be dealt with in a different format. You asked me to withdraw from my meeting with Mr Jordan the next day.”

Mr Bates replied: “I completely, 100 per cent, categorically reject that. I would never ask an officer to withdraw from a meeting. I just would not do that at all.

“I asked if the grievances were still valid and if you still wanted to pursue them at that time.”

The tribunal heard that Ms Wallace, of Connah’s Quay, had a fixed-term contract at the council that was due to expire on December 31.

She was one of three employees on fixed-term contracts who were under threat as part of a review into CEC’s HR service, but she was offered a permanent position at CEC on December 6, 2016 after Mr Bates and Sara Barker, head of strategic HR, decided to halt the service review.

Mr Bates told the tribunal he believed Ms Wallace had declined the offer of a permanent contract, after she said she ‘cannot even begin to consider it as sincere’ in an email responding to the offer – but Ms Wallace said she did not turn the offer down.

He said that he also offered to extend her temporary contract during the meeting at Knutsford services, which Ms Wallace declined, so he then sought legal advice on how to deal with her potential dismissal.

“I was stuck with a situation that I did not know how to deal with,” Mr Bates said.

The tribunal saw both Mr Bates and Mike Suarez, CEC’s suspended chief executive, give evidence to support the respondent’s case.

Both their witness statements say that they are currently suspended for an ‘unrelated matter’ to the tribunal.

Mr Suarez told the tribunal that he received an email titled ‘Whistleblowing Disclosure’ on November 30, 2016.

He said he informed Bill Norman, CEC’s former senior legal officer, that the case was allocated to Mr Jordan, and that he did not know Ms Wallace’s contract was due to expire on December 31 until days before she was dismissed.

Ms Wallace told the tribunal that she was offered an appeal to her dismissal by Mr Bates on March 27, 2017, but that this was later withdrawn.

“I did not make that decision,” Mr Suarez said.

Pointing to his suspension from April 10 last year, he added: “I don’t know who took the decisions.”

Ms Wallace is yet to give her evidence as the claimant.

The tribunal was adjourned until Friday.