THE barrister representing Cheshire East Council at an employment tribunal has accused the claimant of colluding with another employee to challenge a senior officer.

Sue Wallace, a former HR officer from Connah’s Quay, has taken CEC to an employment tribunal after her employment at the council came to an end on December 31, 2016 – just weeks after producing a report which suggested the council underpaid care workers in ‘sleep-in shifts’.

At the hearing on Tuesday, HR officer Deborah Owen – who is still employed by CEC – told the tribunal that she had submitted two grievances on November 30, and another grievance the following month.

Jeremy Lewis, representing CEC as the respondent, suggested that Mrs Owen and Ms Wallace had taken ‘a number of steps to put pressure’ on the HR restructure and Sara Barker, head of strategic HR.

Mr Lewis said: “One step was to raise grievances. Another was whistleblowing. Another route was to see what happened in discussions with [chief operating officer] Peter Bates.”

In response to the allegation, Mrs Owen said: “I’m just not that devious. I wanted my complaint dealt with officially and formally.

“I have had time to reflect in the last 18 months. Things have changed for me. It’s more important [to testify] and I am risking my employment by being here.

“I can only say what is true and what I know. At no point did I make any collusion. I wanted my grievances dealt with and Sue was in a different position to me in terms of that.”

The tribunal heard that Mrs Owen and Ms Wallace were both on fixed-term contracts that were due to end on December 31, 2016.

Mrs Owen said she raised concerns about employees on fixed-term contracts being excluded from a consultation process during a HR staff restructure, which was launched on November 7 and paused the following month.

She also raised a grievance about how procedure had not been followed by Mrs Barker, and another grievance in December after being offered a permanent contract.

Mr Lewis questioned Mrs Owen on what she believed Ms Wallace had raised through the whistleblowing process.

“I know that from a whistleblowing point of view the national minimum wage was in my mind,” Mrs Owen said.

At the tribunal hearing last Friday Frank Jordan, executive director of place at CEC, denied withdrawing issues involving the national minimum wage from a report which recommended that Bill Norman, chief legal officer, should not investigate Ms Wallace’s complaints through the whistleblowing process.

The tribunal also heard evidence from Nina Lingard, consultant employment solicitor at CEC, who witnessed the phone call from Mr Bates on December 21, 2016, informing Ms Wallace that her contract would not be renewed.

Ms Lingard said Mr Bates was ‘gentle, measured and calm’ throughout the call, which she claimed ended prematurely – denying that Mr Bates had put the phone down on Ms Wallace.

The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday, when Ms Wallace will give evidence as the claimant.