A British woman, Karen Conaghan, who sued her former employer for not giving her a farewell card, has lost the case after it was revealed that a card had been arranged, but only three people had signed it. According to ‘The Guardian’, Conaghan’s colleagues felt it would be disrespectful to present her with the card given the low number of signatures.
Conaghan argued that not receiving a leaving card amounted to a “failure to acknowledge her existence” at International Airlines Group (IAG), the parent company of British Airways, which dismissed her in 2021. She claimed this was a violation of equality laws.
A former colleague testified that a farewell card had indeed been purchased for Conaghan, who joined IAG in 2019, but it was ultimately not given to her due to the limited number of signatures. Judge Kevin Palmer noted, “He believed it would have been more insulting to give her the card than not to give her a card at all.”
The employment tribunal heard that Conaghan, a former business liaison lead, filed 40 complaints against IAG, citing sexual harassment, victimization, and unfair dismissal. However, all claims were dismissed by the court.
Judge Palmer concluded that Conaghan had adopted a “conspiracy-theory mentality” and often misinterpreted “normal workplace interactions” as harassment. In one instance, she accused a colleague of copying her use of the word “whiz” but correcting the spelling to “whizz” on another colleague’s card. She also objected to a co-worker’s remark, “Are you taking the piss, Karen?” when she claimed to have done “all the hard work.”
Additionally, the court was informed that Conaghan moved to Richmond, North Yorkshire, in September 2021, despite IAG’s policy requiring employees to live within a two-hour commute from their Heathrow office.
The judge determined that many of the incidents Conaghan cited in her complaint “either did not happen or, if they did happen, they were innocuous interactions in the normal course of employment.”