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TV's The Apprentice winner Stella English 'overpaid lackey'


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Old 05-03-2013, 17:33
Call_me_Dave
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I guess event the job's (whatever it is) is just part of the entertainment too.

Stella English, of Kent, won the BBC show in 2010 and got a job in Lord Sugar's division of IT firm Viglen.

However, she told the East London Employment Tribunal Service she had no choice but to resign after being told her contract was not being renewed.

Ms English, who earned £100,000-a-year, claims constructive dismissal, saying she had no real role at the firm.

She told the hearing she did not feel like Lord Sugar's "apprentice", and only saw him five times during her 13-month employment.

Colleagues did not take Ms English seriously, and she was "ostracised" after being told she had taken another woman's job.
Ms English said: "No specific duties were allocated to me.

"I was provided with a desk and a phone but that was pretty much it."

She described her employment as "a sham".

She told the tribunal that after emailing Lord Sugar asking to discuss her concerns, her boss Bordan Tkachuk was also invited to the meeting.

When Lord Sugar asked Mr Tkachuk what he thought of Ms English, he replied: "Nice girl. Don't do a lot."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21673051

Bit in bold made me laugh
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Old 05-03-2013, 17:56
george.millman
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This is old news.
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Old 05-03-2013, 18:42
JohnVB
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"Nice girl. Don't do a lot."

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Old 05-03-2013, 20:25
Call_me_Dave
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Well it would be (since Stella's left) but it's only now come to light to the masses.
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Old 05-03-2013, 20:29
george.millman
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Well it would be (since Stella's left) but it's only now come to light to the masses.
I'd heard about this before. Maybe I just read more about The Apprentice than a lot of people.
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Old 05-03-2013, 21:27
Jo09
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I think the news is this case is finally being heard and we'll find out what the verdict is soon!
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Old 05-03-2013, 21:30
george.millman
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I think the news is this case is finally being heard and we'll find out what the verdict is soon!
Oh, I see. I can't imagine they'll do very well, Sugar has a great deal more money than she does. Not that I think having money should mean you win court cases, but unfortunately it does sometimes.
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Old 05-03-2013, 22:31
DavetheScot
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Taken long enough for this case to be heard. I must admit that Stella's version of events does have the ring of truth. If it is true, I hope she wins.
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Old 05-03-2013, 23:24
frally
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If the prize was only a one-year contract and it wasn't renewed, I don't quite see how she can claim it was constructive dismissal.
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Old 06-03-2013, 00:35
DavetheScot
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If the prize was only a one-year contract and it wasn't renewed, I don't quite see how she can claim it was constructive dismissal.
But she is claiming that the job never was the kind of job she was led to expect in the first place.
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Old 06-03-2013, 00:55
Jo09
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I would have thought that was fraud.
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Old 06-03-2013, 05:31
LIZALYNN
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I don't know why Stella expected Sugar to be honourable and bother with her at all. He clearly has no interest in The Apprentice contestants at the best of times.
Having said that I applaud Stella for speaking out. She won't win against him and his top paid lawyers but at least she has publicly exposed the winner's prize as a sham.
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Old 06-03-2013, 09:35
treetree
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[quote=LIZALYNN;64620448]I don't know why Stella expected Sugar to be honourable and bother with her at all. He clearly has no interest in The Apprentice contestants at the best of times.
Having said that I applaud Stella for speaking out. She won't win against him and his top paid lawyers but at least she has publicly exposed the winner's prize as a sham.[/QUOTE

is actually getting the job and the £100k a year prize actually a sham? ok it wasnt want she expected and she wasnt kept on but she did get a job and the money offered, She must have signed the one year contract knowing that like any contract it wasn't a guaranteed renewable one
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Old 06-03-2013, 09:40
grps3
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she won a years contract worth £100,000 not a job
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Old 06-03-2013, 12:25
BigDaveX
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It does make you wonder what exactly went wrong for her. Even if you just look at the female winners (since Stella and her legal team have been making pretty strong insinuations of sexism), Yasmina has had nothing but good words about Lord Sugar so far as I can tell, and despite how badly wrongs things ended up going for her, Michelle doesn't seem to have had much personal criticism for Sugar.
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Old 06-03-2013, 13:45
frally
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It does make you wonder what exactly went wrong for her. Even if you just look at the female winners (since Stella and her legal team have been making pretty strong insinuations of sexism), Yasmina has had nothing but good words about Lord Sugar so far as I can tell, and despite how badly wrongs things ended up going for her, Michelle doesn't seem to have had much personal criticism for Sugar.
I suspect she was gambling on LS settling her claim to avoid adverse publicity but his lawyers refused because they know she has a weak case.

However, if her sexism claims are proven, the tribunal can award her compensation for that even if her constructive dismissal claim fails.
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Old 06-03-2013, 14:45
Jo09
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Stella's case can't be that weak as she hasn't had it kicked out yet.
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Old 06-03-2013, 15:13
frally
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Stella's case can't be that weak as she hasn't had it kicked out yet.
Employment tribunals have limited powers to dismiss weak cases.

That's why in the recent landmark Debbie Smith case, the tribunal ordered the claimant to pay significant costs in order to deter other vexatious/misconceived claims.
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Old 06-03-2013, 18:55
Ignazio
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I guess event the job's (whatever it is) is just part of the entertainment too.





http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21673051

Bit in bold made me laugh
Clearly Bordan Tkachuk is not familiar with basic English garmmar.
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Old 06-03-2013, 19:06
Sweet FA
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In a way it serves Lord Sugar right for handing her the title: she was the worst UK Apprentice winner bar none. There were at least 4 other candidates better than her that series...
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Old 06-03-2013, 19:17
Sweet FA
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Clearly Bordan Tkachuk is not familiar with basic English garmmar.
That's Sugar's reporting of what BT had said though...
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Old 06-03-2013, 19:18
george.millman
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In a way it serves Lord Sugar right for handing her the title: she was the worst UK Apprentice winner bar none. There were at least 4 other candidates better than her that series...
I wouldn't say she was the worst, but I agree that there were loads of candidates who were better than her. I thought Laura was great actually; she didn't get a good edit, but there was something about her that I thought was lovely! I would have liked her to win. Liz, Chris and Jamie would have made good winners - and I suppose Joanna, but I never quite forgave her for making things impossible for Laura in Task 2.
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Old 06-03-2013, 20:48
square_eyes
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The finalists actually spent a 4 month probationary period in one of Lord Sugars companies before the winner is announced ?

Is this common knowledge ? It certainly wasn't part of the narrative of the show when picking the eventual winner.
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Old 06-03-2013, 23:27
DavetheScot
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is actually getting the job and the £100k a year prize actually a sham? ok it wasnt want she expected and she wasnt kept on but she did get a job and the money offered, She must have signed the one year contract knowing that like any contract it wasn't a guaranteed renewable one
It may have technically been a job with a six-figure salary, but if the nature of the job wasn't what you would expect for such a salary, it's morally a sham, though it may not be legally. You could pay someone £100k a year to make the tea, but you couldn't say that's what the candidate would reasonably have expected. Bearing in mind that Stella was earning over £80k in her previous job, I don't think she'd have gone in for it just for the money.
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Old 06-03-2013, 23:28
DavetheScot
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The finalists actually spent a 4 month probationary period in one of Lord Sugars companies before the winner is announced ?

Is this common knowledge ? It certainly wasn't part of the narrative of the show when picking the eventual winner.
It's not mentioned on the show, but it has been fairly common knowledge.
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