Athlete awarded £149,000 after boss forced her to travel 800-miles for meeting but didn't turn up himself

An athlete has been awards £149,000 in compensation after her boss forced her to travel 800-miles for a meeting but did not turn up himself.

Beth Littlewood, a former canoe polo champion and a personal trainer at Nuffield Health in Bridgend, has spent years pursuing a series of employment grievances against the leisure centre in July has found all her complaints to be "well-founded".

She said the employment tribunal outcome was "not just about me" and hoped it will benefit thousands of personal trainers, similar to her.

The grievances included unauthorised deductions from her wages, holiday pay disputes and unfair dismissal.

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The dispute came to a head when Littlewood travelled to Brandenburg in Germany to compete in the European Canoe Polo Championships in September 2023.

She had submitted an annual leave request on June 7 to cover her time away and had been open with her managers about her plans, but had not received a response by August 8 when she flagged that the request remained unapproved.

She did not hear back until September 7, while she was already in Germany competing, when manager James Cheadle told her she had neither approved annual leave nor a valid sick note and was required to attend a meeting in person on September 12.

Ms Littlewood, who first joined Nuffield Health in 2015, said there had been "multiple grievances throughout my career about pay-related issues", with earlier problems resolved internally before she felt compelled to escalate her case, reports the BBC.

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