Court date set for Leeds United over employee dismissal

When the 2014/15 Championship campaign was over, it became clear that then-Leeds United head coach Neil Redfearn ws no longer in owner Massimo Cellino’s plans. The axe fell on Redfearn and his partner Lucy Ward, the latter starting legal proceedings against the club that will be heard next month, according to the Daily Mail.

Ward is taking Leeds United to an employment tribunal claiming unfair dismissal and sex discrimination against the Elland Road-based club where she had held a role as head of education and welfare at the club’s highly successful academy for 17 years.

Lucy Ward was a former Leeds Carnegie player, representing the club from 1996-2009 and with a single season (2002/03) as a Doncaster Belles player breaking that 13-season streak.

However, none of that service to the club seemed to make a difference to Massimo Cellino and the Leeds United heirarchy, with the Daily Mail saying in September of Ward’s dismissal by the club she “was suspended on the same day as manager Neil Redfearn.”

The dismissal itself, that Ward is contesting next month, came via Leeds’ then-executive director Adam Pearson who gave the reason as being one of “gross misconduct” after being away from the club for too long a time whilst on “BBC duty in Canada” last summer whilst covering the Women’s World Cup.

Ward is contesting the club’s view of her extended absence, saying that she had “received permission from her club line manager Adam Underwood”, permission that allowed her to be away from the club when required by the BBC. This forming her defence against dismissal, Ward was unsuccessful with her appeal to the club – hence the employment tribunal being convened for April 11 in Leeds.

With Leeds United suffering enough from off-field protests via concerned fan groups, the club can do without yet more negative press as the 2015/16 Championship season drifts towards an end.

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