Kettering care home facing staff bullying claim

A Kettering care home for vulnerable adults has failed to stop a former employee going ahead with legal claims, including alleged bullying, against some of its staff.

Duncan Ndegwa had been employed by Vista Care Ltd of Kettering to help look after residents until he alleged he was unfairly dismissed.

He made legal claims at Birmingham Employment Tribunal against the firm and some staff members for race, sex and age discrimination, victimisation and harassment.

The firm denied the allegations and applied at the hearing to stop the case going ahead on the grounds that Mr Ndegwa had no reasonable prospects of winning his case.

Tribunal Judge Coghlin decided that the claim of victimisation should be rejected but that the other claims should be heard at a full tribunal hearing at a later date.

Judge Coghlin said he saw no reason why the other legal claims should not be heard.

Mr Ndegwa alleged that he was bullied by a female staff member who allegedly created noise to stop him doing his work properly and turned up late to take over the morning shift after he had been on night duty.

He also alleged another employee told him a service user had died, which was not true, and that he had been prevented from attending a training course.

A further complaint was that he had been suspended without pay.

Mr Ndegwa further claimed that he faced detriment after making allegations against the respondents and staff and accused the management of failing to arrange a meeting to discuss his grievances.

Mr Ndegwa claims the allegations involved race, sex and age discrimination.

His age was not disclosed, however, and full details regarding the other allegations were not revealed as the hearing primarily dealt with the repondent's application to strike out the claims.

The date of the full tribunal hearing is yet to be arranged.