A FORMER chief executive of a health trust in East Lancashire claims she was forced out of her role because of a ‘macho culture’ which included telling derogatory jokes about homosexuals.

Lawyers representing Karen Wilson, who led Calderstones NHS Partnership Trust, based in, Whalley, even told of a communication from her predecessor, Russ Pearce, warning about chairman John Berry’s problem ‘with looking at women’s breasts’.

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But Sandra Bevan, the trust’s workforce director, told a Manchester employment tribunal that she thought the issue had been resolved before Mrs Wilson joined the learning disability trust in April 2011.

She said: “Russ Pearce confirmed that he had spoken with John and then I go on to say that he hoped that he would behave.”

Mrs Wilson was dismissed from her £125,000 a year post the following May after a short period on sick leave with stress.

She is accusing the trust, and Mr Berry as the-then chairman, of unfair dismissal, a claim which has been conceded, the tribunal heard.

But she is also alleging sex discrimination and a public interest defence, as she is said to have informed the trust, through her solicitors before she was dismissed, that she was going to lodge a grievance, involving whistle-blowing claims and discrimination, centring on Mr Berry.

Her barrister, David Gilroy, asked Mrs Bevan whether there was a ‘macho culture’ with ‘jobs for the boys’, which permeated the top levels of the NHS trust at the time, to which she agreed.

Mr Gilroy added: “That could include people making derogatory remarks. Mention has been made in evidence about jokes involving homosexuals. John Berry used to do that at the time?”

But Mrs Bevan said that while she had witnessed him telling such jokes on one occasion, in his office, she had not encountered this on any other occasion.

The tribunal heard that there was also an incident, after a staff away day, where Mr Berry was said to have touched Mrs Bevan’s bottom as they rose from a settee where a number of people were ‘squashed together’.

But Mrs Bevan said that while the contact made her feel ‘uncomfortable’ she did not believe there was ‘anything sinister’ about the matter.

Joanne Connolly, representing Mr Berry, said it was unfair to pose any further questions regarding the claims as this had not been raised when her client gave evidence at an earlier hearing.

The tribunal heard that Mr Berry had raised concerns with fellow executive directors regarding the way Mrs Wilson was running the trust in September 2011.

Mrs Bevan confirmed that there was disquiet over the chief executive’s timekeeping, raised by Fran Foster, medical director, and nursing director Paula Braynion.

She also told the hearing that there was unease about the way a potential merger with Oxfordshire-based Ridgeway Partnership Trust, a fellow learning disability trust, had been handled.

The bid, which would have made Calderstones effectively the largest organisation of its kind in the country, had been extensively rewritten by Mrs Wilson, she told the hearing, and colleagues were complaining about a lack of clarity with where they stood over the deal.

Miss Connolly for Mr Berry, told the tribunal that the chairman had headed the panel which appointed Fran Foster and Paula Braynion.

He had also chaired the panel which appointed Mrs Wilson and had been responsible for ensuring that the Calderstones board had gone from ‘mostlly male’ to ‘mostly female’.

Ed Morgan, for the trust, said that when the complaints had been registered by Fran Foster and Paula Braynion it had been ‘turned around’ to suggest it was a problem for the directors over their flexibility.

The tribunal heard that the executive directors, after voicing fears that their relationship with the chief executive had ‘irretrievably broken down’ approved a vote of no confidence at a board meeting in April 2012.

This decision was echoed by the trust’s nominations committee, comprised of non-executive directors, which dismissed her on May 16.

Mr Gilroy, for Mrs Wilson, said it was also questionable why trust bosses had ran checks on the gate records, detailing his client’s movements while working for the trust, alongside an audit of her travel expense claims.

(Proceeding)