Sting and Trudie are rocked as chef wins sacking case
Trudie and Sting: Facing a record damages payout
Victor Jane Martin: Fell out of favour with the Sumners once she was pregnant
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Even though they have many millions in the bank, this is one setback that is sure to sting.
For the celebrity couple formally known as Mr and Mrs Sumner face having to pay record damages to their former chef for unfair dismissal after a tribunal found them guilty of "shameful conduct".
The husband and wife in question - better known as Sting and Trudie Styler - broke employment law by sacking Jane Martin, 41, after she became pregnant, the panel has ruled.
In a devastating judgment obtained by the Daily Mail - due to made public today - Miss Styler is accused of using "subterfuge" to get rid of Miss Martin, and of using "minions" to do her "dirty work".
The employment tribunal had been told that staff at the couple's country estate lived in a climate of fear because Miss Styler subjected them to abuse to make her "feel royal".
In a unanimous verdict, the tribunal members have found that Miss Martin was unfairly dismissed on the grounds of her pregnancy and had been the victim of unlawful sexual discrimination.
There is no limit on the amount of compensation which tribunals can order in sexual discrimination cases, meaning Sting and his wife could find themselves paying out a record amount for a case involving a domestic servant.
Miss Styler described the decision as "a travesty" and announced an immediate appeal.
In March a hearing in Southampton was told that during eight years as the
couple's £28,000-a-year chef, Miss Martin, 41, had cooked for guests such as Madonna, Sir Elton John and Bob Geldof.
Miss Martin would be told to have truffles couriered over from France, and would sometimes have to travel from the couple's 800-acre Lake House estate near Salisbury to their London home just to prepare food for Miss Styler or her children.
But Miss Martin fell out of favour when she became pregnant in 2005.
She had told the tribunal that she had been made to work 14-hour days while heavily pregnant. On one occasion, when she was seven months pregnant, she had to take a train and taxi from Lake House to London, costing £148 in travel and £300 overtime, just to prepare soup and salad for Miss Styler.
She frequently had to make the same journey just to cook a bowl of pasta for the couple's youngest child, even though the London household contained two nannies, two housekeepers and a butler.
Miss Styler, it was claimed, lost her temper when Miss Martin fell ill with a stomach complaint months into her pregnancy and had to take time off work. She allegedly raged: "Who the **** 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."
Miss Martin was told that a redundancy process had been instigated, and she and another chef were each given points on a "scoring" system based on criteria including attendance, ability and length of service, in which she came out second. She was made redundant in April last year.
But the tribunal, describing the points system as a "sham", said it had been designed to ensure that Miss Martin came second. Lake House Estate, the company owned by Sting and his wife through which Miss Martin was employed, was guilty of "shameful conduct", the tribunal said.
The ruling, in which Sting and his wife are referred to as Sumner (his real surname), stated that Miss Martin's departure "was so badly mishandled and conducted in such an incompetent manner that the true purpose shines through the subterfuge and calumnious actions seeking to suppress the true facts.
"Although Mrs Sumner tried to distance herself from the various unlawful acts and have them carried out by minions on her behalf, when the evidence is looked at holistically, her involvement is clear.
"She is without doubt the driving force manipulating others to perform her 'dirty work'. The position is aggravated by her lack of courage either to face the claimant direct and inform her she was no longer required or attend the tribunal to give evidence and have her machinations exposed to the light of day through cross-examination."
The size of Miss Martin's compensation payout will be decided at a hearing on June 8.
Miss Styler said last night: "I am devastated by this decision and I will appeal. For Jane Martin to suggest that I, as a mother, discriminated against her because she was pregnant is risible to anyone who knows me.
"I wholly reject the tribunal's findings on this issue. Sting and I have been lucky over many years to have worked with loyal and longserving colleagues and staff.
"Their collective loyalty and long service suggests that the picture of our household which Jane painted, and which the tribunal appears to have accepted, is a travesty."
A spokesman for Miss Styler's solicitors Kerman & Co said: "We are astonished at the decision which flies in the face of the significant concessions which Jane Martin was forced to give under crossexamination.
"Some of the tribunal's findings appear to be perverse and there will be an appeal. "What is also disturbing is the unfair, unprecedented and unwarranted attack which the tribunal has chosen to make against Sting and Trudie Styler, which is inexplicable."
Sting and Trudie are rocked as chef wins sacking case | the Daily Mail
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