14-02-2025
British Library worker refused quiet place to work wins payout for injured feelings
A British Library worker has won more than £7,000 – for not being given a quiet place to work in.
An employment tribunal ruled that the London institution had discriminated against Lidia Kogut by failing to give her a quiet location or moving her to a 'suitable alternative role'.
Richard Nicolle, an employment judge, said the failure 'to make a reasonable adjustment to provide her with a quiet location within its premises succeeds in accordance with [...] the Equality Act or alternatively that it failed to move her to a quiet office temporarily until a permanent suitable alternative role was identified'.
Ms Kogut, 45, had all her other claims dismissed.
She was awarded £7,554.58 in compensation, £1,350.20 for a reduction in salary she had suffered and £6,204.38 for injury to feelings.
Collects everything ever published
The British Library houses more than 170 million items including the Magna Carter, the library of George III and Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks.
The research building, in Bloomsbury, collects everything ever published in the UK including books, newspapers and even audio recordings.
It houses permanent free displays of its artefacts plus special exhibitions to show off the collection including current ones about Medieval women and the Silk Road trading route.
In March 2024, two elderly Just Stop Oil protesters targeted one of the few surviving copies of Magna Carta kept at the building.
The Rev Dr Sue Parfitt, an 82-year-old Anglican priest from Bristol, and Judy Bruce, 85, a retired biology teacher from Swansea, south Wales, smashed the glass guarding the document and demanded an emergency plan to stop oil production by 2030.
The pair were charged with criminal damage in May 2024.
