Substance misuse charity Turning Point has withdrawn its appeal against an employment tribunal ruling, which had found it had unfairly dismissed its former IT director, Ibukun Adebayo.
Adebayo was dismissed from her post in in August 2013, after reporting the discovery of emails between the charity’s chief executive Victor Adebowale and deputy chief executive David Hoare, that branded her "looney tunes", described sex acts and mocked her religious beliefs.
She was accused of gross misconduct for accessing the emails and subsequently dismissed. But a tribunal found she had been unfairly dismissed - prompting a further appeal against the decision by the charity.
Turning Point's application to withdraw its appeal was submitted on 12 January 2017 and granted on Tuesday.
In a statement this morning, the charity confirmed that "after careful consideration, and after what has been a long and protracted legal process over a number of years, Turning Point has decided to withdraw its appeals".
"This decision has not been taken lightly. It has been taken in the best interests of the organisation and despite Turning Point’s legal team advising that its appeals were highly likely to succeed.
"Mrs Adebayo had also lodged an appeal against a number of findings that had been made by the Employment Tribunal in Turning Point’s favour, however, all of Mrs Adebayo’s appeals were dismissed by the Employment Appeal Tribunal.”
Yesterday, Adebayo said she "shared Turning Point’s relief that their application to withdraw their appeal against the ET award for unfair dismissal, victimisation and harassment, was granted".
She added, the tribunal and appeal was “a tremendous waste of taxpayer resources that was meant to have been spent on the charity’s service users”.
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