Sting pays out

Sting and his wife Trudie Styler have been ordered to pay their former chef compensation after losing a sexual discrimination case.

The couple were told they must pay 41-year-old Jane Martin £24,944 at an employment tribunal in Southampton.

Martin claimed Styler sacked her from her job at the couple's Wiltshire estate because she was pregnant.

The compensation includes £10,000 for injury to feelings and £16,000 for loss of earnings with deductions for redundancy pay Martin has already received.

But tribunal chairman James Simpson admitted Martin could have claimed a much larger sum.

He said: "The tribunal was surprised when Mr Norman, representing the claimant, suggested the figure of £10,000 and that the claimant was not seeking aggravated damages or costs."

Martin won her cases of unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination on June 8 after telling a Southampton employment tribunal of her "cruel" treatment from her former employers.

She claimed she was forced to work 14-hour days even while heavily pregnant, and that when she took time off sick Styler fumed: "Who the f**k does she think she is? She's my chef in the UK. She needs to be available if I need her, or she should rethink her position."

Martin admitted she feared she would lose her baby because of the stress she was being put under.

A spokesman for Styler said an appeal had been lodged and insisted the hearing had displayed bias against her.

He said: "It remains Trudie's position that she, as a woman and a mother, has never in her life sexually discriminated against anyone and never would do so."

(C) BANG Media International