ISLE OF MAN - A diabetic shop worker who was sacked for self-isolating at the start of the pandemic has been awarded £7,000.

Jackie Reid stayed at home after her GP warned her Type 1 diabetes would make her more vulnerable to the virus. She told her boss, Kirsten Bennett, at the Good Health Store on the Isle of Man that she needed to self-isolate for 14 days, and that it could go on for 12 weeks, a tribunal heard.

Mrs Reid offered to return to work immediately after isolating for two weeks, but Ms Bennett ‘reacted negatively and rejected this, saying she had no other choice’ but to dismiss her, a tribunal heard.

During her evidence, Ms Bennett said Mrs Reid had ‘abandoned her job without notice, without regard to the other employees or to the business’. Ms Bennett even argued Mrs Reid could have been sued for a breach of contract.

But tribunal chairman Douglas Stewart rejected the notion, saying that had she read the law she would have saved herself ‘considerable time, worry and expense’. Mr Stewart and the panel awarded Mrs Reid a total of £7,161.(FA)