A UK employment tribunal has awarded £150,000 (over Rs 1 crore) in damages to a lecturer who was fired from her position allegedly for being too loud. A report by The Mirror reports that Dr. Annette Plaut (59) spent nearly three decades working at the University of Exeter’s physics department. It was unfair for the university to fire her for her ‘loud’ voice and overbearing manner.
A lawsuit by the woman against her employer resulted in a tribunal ordering the university to pay damages and finding that her dismissal was unfair. In 1990, Dr. Annette became the university’s first female academic in the physics department. Annette’s Jewish parents had fled to the UK when they were children. According to her, ‘the loud voice comes from my family background and is perfectly normal’. She argued that her voice is considered acceptable among people with Eastern and Middle European Jewish backgrounds and that she had never faced issues like these while working in Germany or New York.
After being suspended twice earlier, the lecturer alleged that being both female and loud caused her termination and that she contradicted the stereotype that women should speak softly. The university, however, refuted Annette’s claims and said it had nothing to do with her gender or voice, rather it had to do with the way she behaved towards two PhD students.
As per the tribunal’s verdict, Dr. Annette’s life was focused on the university as she worked there for decades. Annette was further ordered not to retain access to university email accounts and other facilities due to her dismissal, in addition to receiving Rs 1 crore in damages. The university’s judgement also stated that reinstating Annette would be impractical because of entrenched biases against her within the senior echelon and the human resource department. According to the judgment, ‘Every aspect of her life and future was in danger, and for no good reason, and unfairly’.
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