Tribunal told Bridgnorth Town Council officer leaked information

A former Bridgnorth Town Council officer leaked confidential information from a private meeting to help her boss in a grievance claim against the authority, an employment tribunal heard.

Mary Merrifield transcribed the minutes of a behind-closed-doors meeting of the council called to discuss a grievance lodged by then town clerk Rachel Humphries, yesterday's hearing was told.

Mrs Merrifield was PA to Mrs Humphries who was off work with work related stress at the time of the meeting in January last year.

Mr Nigel Harrison, for the council, told the hearing Mrs Merrifield's e-mail detailing what was said at the meeting on how the council would proceed with the grievance the clerk had lodged was damaging.

Mr Harrison said Mrs Merrifield had also sent other e-mails to Mrs Humphries while she was off sick, some of them derogatory about councillors and colleagues, others being confidential in nature.

Mrs Merrifield, of Cartway, Bridgnorth, was made the subject of a disciplinary hearing in July last year where she was found guilty of gross misconduct and dismissed the following month. She appealed but her appeal was dismissed in October, 2010.

Mrs Merrifield is claiming at the tribunal she was unfairly dismissed.

The hearing was told yesterday locum town clerk John Ward was called in to investigate Mrs Humphries' grievance claim and he discovered e-mails sent from work by Mrs Merrifield to Mrs Humphries.

Mr Ward told the tribunal one of the e-mails sent by Mrs Merrifield to Mrs Humphries contained the transcribed minutes of a confidential council meeting where the strategy of the authority over the grievance claim was discussed.

Mrs Sarah Daley, counsel for Mrs Merrifield, said her client disputed her actions were gross misconduct and believed the council was unreasonable in dismissing her.

Mrs Humphries, of Coalbrookdale, who joined Bridgnorth Town Council as clerk in June 2008 but quit in December last year, is also taking Bridgnorth District Council to tribunal in Birmingham.

Both hearings continue.