Mrs Sting, Trudie Styler, says she is devastated that an employment tribunal has ruled the she and her husband, Mr Sting, discriminated against and unlawfully dismissed a chef who worked at their mansion home. Styler told reporters yesterday: "I am devastated that the tribunal's judgment makes this unjust and unfair attack on Sting and me. It does not, we believe, reflect the facts which were put before the hearing and we will be appealing".
The tribunal was considering the case of Jane Martin, who claimed that her treatment in the Sting household, where she had worked for eight years, worsened after she became pregnant, until she was eventually dismissed, being told the Sting family no longer needed so many cooks. She accused Styler of having a "grandiose ego", claiming her boss wanted to be treated in a "royal manner beyond her station as an actress". The area of most concern to the tribunal was the process that Sting and Styler's management company, Lake House Estate, went through when dismissing Martin, which, the committee said, was unlawful. The couple will now have to pay to-be-determined compensation to the cook - exactly how much they will be ordered to pay should be decided on 8 Jun.
A spokesman for Sting's solicitors, Kerman and Co, told reporters: "What is extremely disturbing is the unfair, unprecedented and unwarranted attack which the tribunal has chosen to make against Sting and Trudie Styler, which is quite inexplicable".