Female City worker who beat breast cancer is awarded £15,000

A female City worker who beat breast cancer aged just 29 claims bosses made her return to work 'impossible' after informing her that her pay would not be reinstated until a full medical report had been completed by her doctor.  

Camelia Fajri, who worked as a broker at Vantage Capital Markets, said her bosses 'insistence' on 'making contact' with her consultant oncologist delayed her return to work, eventually causing her to resign.

Ms Fajri started her role at the firm, which involved the facilitation of trade between different clients such as banks or hedge funds, back in 2020. 

But she was diagnosed with breast cancer the following year and underwent a course of chemotherapy as well as surgery in the summer of 2022. 

In November that year, CEO John Meadows sent her a message on WhatsApp asking her what her 'plans' were. 

The following month, he told her that her pay would be 'significantly reduced', while the company's HR informed her she would not be paid until she returned to work.

Ms Fajri sued for disability discrimination and has now been awarded £14,858.55 in compensation following an employment tribunal in central London. 

An employment judge said bosses left the broker in 'a limbo period' by refusing to pay her until the completion of the medical, which they deemed was not 'strictly necessary'.

Ms Fajri wrote to her bosses in November 2022 to tell them she had just finished radiotherapy and despite the 'ups and downs', she was 'recovering' and wanted to return to work to join 'the dream team again'.

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Despite telling bosses she was ready to return, the broker said she received no response and was forced to send an additional email to Mr Meadow in December asking him 'what's going on'.

The CEO eventually replied and a date in January 2023 was agreed upon for Ms Fajri's return to work, the tribunal heard.

But, further email correspondence saw Charles Eddis — the company's head of compliance — tell the broker that there would be a 'number of challenges' resulting from her time out.

'We will, in due course, need to have a full report from your doctor/oncologist in order to assess your fitness to return to work, so I would be grateful I you could let me know how you would prefer to go about this,' he wrote.

The broker agreed to do so as she was 'keen to move forward'.

In early January, Mr Eddis emailed Ms Fajri to say the company's 'priority' was to make sure she was 'fit enough to cope with her role and the additional difficulties in re-establishing client relationship'.

The email said: 'If you are looking for a phased/partial return to work, it would be helpful to know how you would address the inherent difficulty posed by the fact that the demands of clients and markets mean that it is very rare (in fact, unknown by us) for a part-time broker to be a successful broker'.'

In February, Ms Fajri emailed Mr Eddis informing him that she was 'ready to return to work' and asked that her pay be reinstated.

The broker provided details of her oncologist and also told him 'she did not consider networking and travel possible at that time' in relation to her return to work.

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Mr Eddis responded and said that when the 'relevant documents' relating to her medical were completed, she would be reinstated.

In response, Ms Fajri queried why a medical report was required before she could restart work.

She said 'my return is delayed by your insistence on making contact with my consultant'.

On March 15, Ms Fajri resigned by email, alleging constructive dismissal and disability discrimination.

The female broker said that her bosses had made it 'impossible' for her to come back.

She told the panel: 'They didn't want me back because I had cancer and therefore needed adjustments which they were not willing to do and that is discrimination.'

Employment Judge Barry Smith said the request for Ms Fajri to carry out a medical before returning to work was unfavourable treatment.

He said the panel did not consider this requirement to be 'strictly necessary' and delayed the reinstatement of her salary.

'Whilst it may well have been a matter of good practice, particularly to identify reasonable adjustments, the lack of assessment did not preclude [Ms Fajri's] employment in some way,' EJ Smith said.

'Given the respondent's position on pay, this amounted to unfavourable treatment in all of the circumstances.'

The judge said asking Ms Fajri to undertake a medical assessment before her return to work was not 'a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim'.

He said the requirement for a report left Ms Fajri in 'a limbo period' between being off sick and returning to work and said something 'less discriminatory' could have been done instead.

For this reason, her claims of disability discrimination were upheld.

Other claims made by Ms Fajri were dismissed.