Abbott UK employee loses unfair dismissal trial

A “whistleblower” at Abbott Pharmaceuticals has lost her case for unfair dismissal, icBerkshire reported.

Julia Jeffers, a former HIV representative specialist, told an employment tribunal that she was sacked because she knew about trips to lap-dancing clubs and brothels laid on by Abbott staff for clients.

She said she was told not to make a fuss of being groped by a client in case the firm’s HIV drug sales business was harmed and that managers knew that she had been informed about the use of lap-dancing club and prostitutes by her then-partner Robin Huxley.

Ms Jeffers said that company bosses let her go under the guise of poor performance after they became aware that she knew of the activities at the company. “I had information about the unethical and immoral practices of my line manager Nick Panton, unit business manager Clive Spiegler and others,” she said.

But the tribunal said that disclosures about the company’s questionable hospitality only came to light after Ms Jeffers was sacked on March 22nd 2005.

Abbott Pharmaceuticals was suspended from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) after the allegations came to light, and has since sacked the employees involved.

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