A mortgage advisor has won a payout of more than £20,000 after she was sacked for “moaning”.

Helen McMahon was fired from her job at Heron Financial Limited in Rickmansworth two working days after complaining about matters including her working hours.

She said that that she was becoming “stressed” working more than 48 hours per week, an employment tribunal heard.

The mortgage brokers claimed she was fired for poor performance despite awarding her champagne for doing well at work in the year she was let go.

The employment tribunal in Cambridge was told that Mrs McMahon started work at Heron Financial Limited in June 2017 as a New Build and Mortgage Protection Advisor.

She was initially employed on £25,000 although this rose to £27,000 due to good performances and training a new starter.

Her role included going out on site to meet clients viewing show homes on new developments – she would work one day from home and divided the remaining time between the site and the office.

The tribunal heard that if she was on a site she could work as much as a 12 hours day without a lunch break including the travel time, although this was not always the case.

In May 2019, Mrs McMahon emailed bosses regarding her commission - which she was entitled to - feeling she was entitled to additional commission which had not been paid.

She then took two weeks off due to sickness – when she returned to work, she had a meeting with her boss Robin Thomas at her request.

She wanted to discuss matters including her salary and commission in May 2019 as well as her working hours.

She told the tribunal: “Even though I was by then only working every other weekend I was still working very long hours.

"I said to Mr Thomas that I was working more than 48 hours a week, that it was stressing me out and that I wanted somehow to reduce my hours."

Two working days later she was due to attend the monthly meeting with her colleagues which is held off site before receiving a text to go to the office.

She was met by a man called Mr Harrocks who told her she was being let go.

Mrs McMahon claimed the dismissal was unfair and wrongful on the basis she was not sacked for performance issues but because she had raised concerns about her working hours, commission and May 2019 wages.

Mr Harrocks stated that he was unaware of the conversation with Mr Thomas or that the Mrs McMahon was raising these issues.

“Yet this was a small business and the directors discussed matters regularly between them,” Judge King said.

A text from Mr Thomas to one of his colleagues about his dealings with Mrs McMahon read: 'From memory nothing formal was made but if it was a quick chat I cannot be 100 per cent certain as she was always moaning.

'In all aspects if she wasn't happy I did point her in yourself or Matt's direction.'

Judge King said: “I consider that the claimant has established in the absence of any other credible reason that her dismissal was because she was “moaning” and that these complaints were about her statutory rights.

"I believe that Mr Harrocks was aware of these matters and that this was the reason or principal reason for the claimant’s dismissal."

Judge King added: “I am satisfied that the claimant was dismissed for assertion of a statutory right. That dismissal was unfair as no process was followed and there was no fair reason to dismiss the claimant.”

Mrs McMahon was awarded £19,552.33 for unfair dismissal and £2,736.38 for unlawful deduction from wages.

She was also awarded £586.81 for unpaid commission and sick pay and £252.41 for wrongful dismissal.