Melton Mowbray: Secretary can sue over mouldy cheese claim – judge

Melton Mowbray: A former secretary is taking her employer to court over some mouldy cheese. She claims she was unfairly treated after complaining about it.

Ms. Wright says she was served two pots of cheese that were mouldy, but the company insists they were just peppered. The judge, Richard Adkinson, said it’s hard to tell from photos what the cheese really looked like.

She joined the company in June 2023, and her cheese complaint happened in May 2024. Ms. Wright claims she was told to throw the cheese away and to keep quiet about it. She believes this was a cover-up of a health issue.

Around the same time, her coworkers started raising concerns about her behavior, leading to a meeting that didn’t change anything. Ms. Wright felt her complaints were dismissed. Later, she faced a disciplinary hearing and was fired for being “rude and unproductive.”

She also mentioned she wasn’t allowed to have a union rep with her during that meeting. The judge noted that while her worries about the cheese might have been valid, her claims of unfair dismissal were unlikely to succeed. He added that she seemed genuinely upset but didn’t quite grasp the legal side of things.