A wheelchair tennis executive who was sacked after she refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine despite the government ending nearly all restrictions at the time has been awarded damages.
The court on heard that ITF senior executives decided it needed to adopt a “hard line” stance on “non vaxxed people.”
Miss Synan was dismissed from her £37,500 a year role in February 2022 following the introduction of a new policy on COVID-19 vaccinations.
Synan worked for the ITF, supervising the organisation of the sport from the grassroots upwards. That included wheelchair tennis, Miss Synan’s area of work.
The ITF’s COVID-19 policy was that international travel was an important requirement of her role, that she should not go if she was unvaccinated, and so she was unable to fulfil all the requirements of her role. Miss Synan said she had “anxiety” about getting vaccinated.
The ITF announced in October 2021 that employees must be double-jabbed to travel, even though there were no requirements to be vaccinated to enter the country at the time.
As a result, Miss Synan could not attend the U.S. Masters tournament and faced other strict restrictions which meant she also missed the Christmas party.
Hard Line
Internal emails from Head of Wheelchair Tennis Alistair Williams and HR director Jane O'Sullivan showed them discussing how to deal with un-vaccinated employees.“This is serious stuff and I think we need to take a hard line on non ‘vaxxed’ people,” Ms O'Sullivan wrote.
She was also told that stating that her lack of vaccination put visitors at risk.
Ms O'Sullivan told the tribunal that “this initiative came from the president himself.”
“He felt that it was no longer acceptable for any member of the ITF to represent them at an international event if they had not been vaccinated,” she added.
A tribunal report said: “These are particularly severe restrictions. It had never been part of government guidelines, for example, that office workers should wear facemasks at all times in the office, and this was long after most restrictions had been lifted, so it was certainly taking a hard line with the three unvaccinated members of staff.”
“The national and international COVID-19 situation were clearly improving at the time of Miss Synan’s dismissal,” Judge E Fowell said.
“To dismiss Miss Synan in those circumstances seems to me to be a decision which is outside the range of reasonable responses,” the judge added.
Novak Djokovic
Tennis ace Novak Djokovic has not been able to compete in competitions because of COVID-19 vaccine mandates.Last July, ahead of the U.S. Open, Mr. Djokovic explained that he is still not vaccinated and has no plans on getting the jab against COVID-19, which was at the time necessary according to Biden administration policy to enter the United States and participate in the final Grand Slam of the season.
John McEnroe at the time said Mr. Djokovic should be allowed to play at the U.S. Open.
“These politicians are getting in the way too much. They did it in Australia. Let’s let the guy come in and play in the U.S. I mean, come on, this is ridiculous,” Mr. McEnroe said.
“But I don’t make those decisions. I hope someone makes the right one and allows him to play. That’s my personal opinion.”
The International Tennis Federation did not respond to comment.
