Sumner couples' Gender Discrimination

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Sting could pay out record damages for unfairly dismissing his chef. The singer whose real name is Gordon Sumner and his wife Trudie Styler were judged to have broken employment laws by sacking Jane Martin, 41, last April.

In a unanimous verdict, it was ruled Martin was unfairly dismissed on the grounds of her pregnancy and was the victim of gender discrimination. Martin's compensation payout will be decided at a hearing on June 8. There is no limit on the amount awarded in gender discrimination cases meaning Sting could be forced to pay record damages for a case involving a domestic servant.

Martin, who worked for the couple for eight years, said she was made to work 14-hour days despite being heavily pregnant. Once, while seven months pregnant, she claimed she took a train and taxi from Salisbury to London to make soup and a salad for Styler.

Martin, revealed she was also asked to travel to London on several occasions to cook a bowl of pasta for the couple's youngest child - even though there were two nannies, a butler and two housekeepers in the London household.

When Martin fell ill during her pregnancy and took time off work, Styler is alleged to have fumed: "Who 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." Styler was branded the "driving force" in Martin's dismissal, and accused of "subterfuge" to get rid of her 28,000-a-year employee.

Martin was made redundant after being deemed to be worse than another chef when the pair were assessed on ability, length of service and attendance.

The employment tribunal were told staff at the couple's Salisbury Lake House estate lived in fear because Styler wanted to "feel royal".

Styler says she is "devastated" by the ruling and plans to launch an appeal. She insists, "For Jane Martin to suggest that I, as a mother, discriminated against her because she was pregnant is risible to anyone who knows me. Sting and I have had many staff. Their loyalty and long service suggests the picture of our household which Jane Martin painted, and which the tribunal appears to have accepted, is a travesty."

The ruling says "Mrs Sumner (Styler's married surname) is without doubt the driving force manipulating others to perform her dirty work. When the evidence is looked at holistically, her involvement is clear."