Aida is a Partner in our Education Department and heads up their Schools HR team. Aida specialises in employment law in the education sector. Her clients include maintained schools and academy trust companies, as well as dioceses and independent schools.

Aida advises on the full range of HR and employment law issues in the education sector including day to day HR advice, grievances, disciplinary procedures, TUPE, sickness absence management, dismissals and breach of contract. Aida always strives to provide clients with practical and robust advice, with a focus on early resolution of disputes and achieving the best outcome whilst minimising risk. She has a real understanding of the sector and the application of national agreements (Burgundy Book and Green Book), as well as collective bargaining.

In addition, Aida regularly advises on regulatory matters including referrals to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) relating to staff misconduct.

Aida has particular expertise in complex workplace disputes and employment tribunal litigation, including cases concerning discrimination on all protected grounds, whistleblowing and where there is crossover with other areas of law such as data protection, safeguarding and criminal offences.

In addition, Aida is strategic and commercial in her approach. She is particularly effective in advising on crisis management and reputational risk, and in cases that require a high degree of sensitivity. She gives our schools clients the confidence to deal with a variety of HR, employment law and regulatory issues that their organisation may be facing.

Our clients commend Aida not only for her sound legal advice and technical ability, but also her down to earth nature and exceptional client care.

Aida regularly speaks at seminars and webinars, and delivers training to a wide range of clients.

Prior to joining Winckworth Sherwood, Aida was involved in a number of high profile and reported cases including:

• Dobson v North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust UKEAT/0220/19/LA concerning an employment tribunal’s failure to take judicial notice of the fact that women, because of their childcare responsibilities, were less likely to be able to accommodate certain working patterns than men.
• Forstater v (1) CGD Europe (2) Center for Global Development (3) Masood Ahmed UKEAT/0105/20/JOJ where it was established that ‘gender-critical’ beliefs, including a belief that biological sex is real, important, immutable and not to be conflated with gender identity, are protected under the Equality Act and the European Convention on Human Rights.
• Wright-Turner v London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and Ms K Dero: 2206237/2018 where the Claimant was awarded £4.6m in damages, one of the largest awards ever made by the ET in a public sector case, following her dismissal by the LB Hammersmith and Fulham because of her ADHD. Additionally, the tribunal found that the Council’s Chief Executive, its Interim Head of Corporate Services, its Strategic Director of Governance and Finance and Section 151 Officer, and the Council’s Borough Solicitor and Monitoring Officer, were all involved in a deliberate deception.
• Idu v The East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust [2019] EWCA Civ 1649 where the Court of Appeal upheld an employment tribunal’s decision that allegations of misconduct against a doctor, including rudeness and refusal to follow reasonable instructions, did not amount to allegations of ‘professional misconduct’.

Recent Experience

• Advising a number of schools, multi academy companies and dioceses on internal HR processes including disciplinary, grievance and sickness absence management
• Advising on the implications of TUPE on academy conversion and harmonising terms and conditions of employment post TUPE transfer
• Defending a number of complex group claims relating to holiday pay for term time only staff arising out of the Harpur Trust v Brazel litigation
• Defending a number of equal pay group claims arising out of local authority salary benchmarking
• Negotiating settlement agreements and early resolution of disputes
• Advising on the implications of national agreements (Green Book and Burgundy Book)
• Extensive experience in successfully defending Employment Tribunal claims including claims for unfair dismissal, discrimination on all protected grounds, whistleblowing, unlawful deductions from wages, holiday pay, breach of contract and group claims
• Advising a number of schools and MATs in relation to crisis management and reputational risk
• Advising a Church of England school in a complex employment tribunal claim which included a myriad of allegations against the school and six named respondents and which concluded at a 20 day final hearing
• Advising a MAT in connection with the dismissal of a teacher for some other substantial reason (SOSR) where the relationship between the parties had irretrievably broken down
• Advising a school in connection with a high profile multi-jurisdictional dispute involving a former employee which included claims in the High Court and a referral to the TRA subsequently leading to a prohibition order
• Advising the Board of a MAT in connection with an anonymous whistleblowing complaint and allegations of serious misconduct against various members of the executive team
• Advising on various senior exits on confidential terms including HR Directors, CEOs and CFOs
• Advising a number of schools and MATs on criminal allegations against staff including in relation to suspension from work, disciplinary processes and dismissal during an ongoing Police investigation
• Attending multi agency meetings with the Police and LADO in various local authorities across the country
• Advising a London based MAT on changes to its staff pension arrangements
• Advising a community interest company on a companywide restructure and redundancy exercise
• Advising a successful Catholic MAT on the employment law and HR implications of various transformation projects
• Advising a number of schools and MATs in connection with industrial action, including in relation to recognition agreements, facilities time, collective bargaining, balloting and picketing.