Psychiatrists win unfair dismissal case after being made to do out of hours work

Three consultant child psychiatrists with child care responsibilities have won an unfair dismissal case against the NHS trust that took over their services from a previous provider and tried to make them do out of hours on-call work.

Victoria Laakkonen, Sarah Taylor, and Mary Cole won their case in the Southampton employment tribunal in July 2012 and have now had their victory upheld by the employment appeal tribunal, whose judgments set precedents for other cases.

The three women had been working part time for Salisbury Health Care NHS Trust under contracts with an express term that they were not required …