Aberdeen City Council has been ordered to pay a former social work manager more than £90,000 in compensation for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination.

Aberdeen City Council has been ordered to pay a former social work manager more than £90,000 in compensation for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination.

An employment tribunal has ruled that the council's unfair treatment of Ruth Hickling led to her resignation last year and that its failure to make workplace adjustments to ease her back pain amounted to disability discrimination.

At the hearing in Aberdeen earlier this year, the tribunal was told that Mrs Hickling, 50, of Brucklay, near Peterhead, had worked for the council since 1990. As social work manager she earned £36,000 a year.

She had a history of back pain and was off work for seven weeks in 2003. She was again signed off with sciatica from July 2005, but attempted a phased return to work 12 months later, by which time her entitlement to half-pay had ended.

The tribunal was told that medical professionals had suggested that two special chairs, costing £145 and £500 each, could have helped Mrs Hickling sit for longer periods of time while she was at work, but her line managers decided not to buy them.

In her resignation letter, Mrs Hickling described herself as "poverty-stricken" and said she had lost all trust and confidence in Aberdeen City Council as an employer.

The council argued that Mrs Hickling was not disabled and claimed they had not forced her to resign by failing to offer her adequate support for a return to work.

In its written judgment, the tribunal ruled against the council and awarded Mrs Hickling £90,146, including loss of earnings, future loss of earnings and £7500 damages for injury to her feelings.