A CHARITY worker has won £115,000 compensation after being wrongly sacked for whistleblowing on foul-mouthed colleagues calling disabled people “druggy bums” and “wastes of space”.

Catriona Robinson, 51, was "bullied" by fellow workers at mental health charity Mind after she raised fears about their four-letter foul language.

Miss Robinson told how she heard colleagues insulting mental health sufferers - and even accusing them of lying about their illnesses.

She was "ostracised and ignored" after blowing the whistle on a colleague doing an offensive impression of a severely disabled person while other workers laughed along.

An employment tribunal judge ruled the Monmouthshire branch of the charity "swept the matter under the carpet" to save itself - and had unfairly dismissed Miss Robinson.

The tribunal ruled: "There was frequent bad language and banter which overstepped the boundaries of acceptability in terms of equality and diversity."

Miss Robinson told the hearing she had witnessed foul language "daily", which was often followed by "prolonged episodes of raucous laughter".

She said: “Long discussions were held about clients having lied about their conditions/diagnosis, articulating there had been ‘nothing wrong with them and their being druggy bums and wastes of space.’

“Staff commented that the clients who were awarded welfare benefits as being unfair as they got more money than they received in wages.”

The employment tribunal in Cardiff heard Miss Robinson blew the whistle after seeing co-worker Gail Morris do an offensive impression of a physically disabled woman at the charity office in Abergavenny.

Miss Robinson said she was so upset by the mimicking that she broke down in tears as other workers laughed.

She said: “The lady was not present and not one person involved gave a thought to her whilst they enjoyed themselves.

“I sat shocked at what I could see and hear, I was very distressed. I got up and walked out of the office went to the staff kitchen where I cried."

The tribunal was told that during a meeting, one worker described the impression as “harmless", adding: "Gail would never mean offence to anyone, it was banter, a bit of fun”.

But Miss Robinson told the hearing she was subjected to "blatant bullying" in the office after she complained about the impression.

She said: "It was the treatment of me in the office post-disclosure of the lady being mimicked.

"There was on-going ignoring of me, they were passive aggressive and overtly rude to me."

Former NHS nurse Miss Robinson took time off sick in the months following the incident and an an occupational health report recommended she return to a new role away from other staff members.

While she was off sick Miss Robinson raised a grievance but her concerns were dismissed by the charity after an internal investigation.

She appealed but the decision was upheld.

Miss Robinson later resigned from her job at Mind Monmouthshire Ltd claiming she was constructively dismissed.

Mind Monmouthshire Ltd denied the claims and says Miss Robinson resigned because she was in breach of contract.

Employment Judge Alison Frazer said: "She blew the whistle on an incident which was admitted by the management involved in it. Despite this it was not escalated.

"She was suffering from some health and personal difficulties at the time and so did not push the matter but was of the view that management ought to have done something about the situation.

"The management swept the matter under the carpet to save their own involvement in it. In so doing they failed to consider their duty of care to her.

"The lack of management or escalation led to a situation where the claimant was ostracised and the behaviour within the office was not kept in check.

"There was frequent bad language and banter which overstepped the boundaries of acceptability in terms of equality and diversity.

"There was reported to have been racially and sexually offensive language and comments made that were derogatory to people with mental and physical disabilities."

The tribunal concluded Miss Robinson's claims for automatically unfair dismissal, failure to make reasonable adjustments and victimisation were well founded.

She was awarded £115,657.50 in compensation - this included £48,263.20 for injury to feelings and over £40,000 for loss of earnings plus amounts for loss of statutory rights and expenses.