Cycling: Briton Varnish loses
employment tribunal appeal
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[July 14, 2020]
LONDON (Reuters) - Former
British cyclist Jess Varnish's employment tribunal appeal against
the sport's national governing body has been dismissed, it was
announced on Tuesday.
Former European team sprint champion Varnish was dropped from the
national squad before the 2016 Rio Olympics, after which she claimed
she should have been considered an employee of British Cycling or
the funding agency UK Sport.
The initial employment tribunal in January 2019 found against
Varnish, although she won the right to appeal.
"The (original) tribunal was entitled to conclude, based on an
evaluative judgment taking account of all relevant factors, that the
claimant was not an employee or a worker," appeal judge Mr Justice
Choudhury ruled.
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"The tribunal had not erred in its approach to the assessment of
employee status and nor had it reached conclusions that no
reasonable tribunal, properly directed, could have reached."
Had the 29-year-old Varnish won her appeal, she would have opened up
the possibility of a wrongful dismissal and sexual discrimination
case against British Cycling and UK Sport.
Varnish originally said she had been told to "go off and have a
baby" by former British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton, who
resigned after the allegations.
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![](../images/071420PICS/sports47.jpg)
England's Jess Varnish waves after winning the bronze medal in the
women's sprint finals cycling race at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in
Glasgow, Scotland, July 27, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Winning
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Mar/14/images/ads/current/tires250x300.gif)
In a statement British Cycling said it had tried to reach a
resolution with Varnish, but emphasised its relationship with
athletes was supportive.
"We believe that British Cycling's relationship with riders who
represent this country is not one of employer-employee but that of
an organisation supporting dedicated athletes to fulfil their
potential," it said.
"Since Jess raised her concerns about the Great Britain Cycling Team
in 2016, we have implemented significant changes to the culture and
processes of our high-performance programme."
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond and Christian
Radnedge)
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