A UNIVERSITY lecturer who claims she was sacked for being too loud has been awarded more than £100,000 by an employment tribunal.

Dr Annette Plaut, 60, alleged it was a combination of her being female and having a "naturally" loud voice that led to her dismissal from the University of Exeter's physics department where she had worked for 30 years.

An Exeter employment tribunal was told she was a "Marmite" character who some found "overbearing" and did not like her boisterous style.

However, the Devon university claimed that she was dismissed over the way she dealt with two Ph.D. students.

The tribunal ruled she was unfairly dismissed and awarded her just under £101,000- a decision that the University is appealing.

During the tribunal hearing in Exeter, Dr. Plaut said she had "inherent characteristics of stereotypical loudness" due to her middle European Jewish background.

The tribunal ruled she was unfairly dismissed and claims of victimisation and harassment in respect of her suspension in April 2019 succeeded.

The tribunal said the senior lecturer was the only woman in the physics and astronomy department when she joined the university in October 1990.

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The panel said: "Dr Plaut's parents left Germany before the Second World War.

"This was a family experience which Dr Plaut feels deeply. Dr Plaut feels very strongly that her inherent characteristics include a stereotypical loudness and demonstrative and argumentative style of interpersonal discourse.

"Dr Plaut is passionate about physics. While she can try to restrain her natural personality it tends to emerge when style becomes engaged in discussion about physics.

"Over the years some colleagues and some students have found this somewhat overbearing, despite Dr Plaut telling students and colleagues that she means nothing by it."

The university argued that Dr Plaut was perceived to shout at students and colleagues which had nothing to do with her being female or Jewish.

Dr Plaut told a remedy hearing: "I want to be reinstated."

But as for getting another post, she said: "They don't recruit 60-year-olds, they recruit new blood, innovative thinking, thrusting and they are cheap, not expensive. I am too boisterous to develop in a laboratory.

"I am 60 and have no intention to retire and draw my pension."

She claimed she was consistently treated unfairly by the university over decades and was targeted for dismissal.

The remedy judgment said it was "difficult to imagine the depth of humiliation, hurt, stress and worry" for Dr Plaut after she was suspended adding: "Every aspect of her life and future was at risk, and for no good reason, and unfairly."

A University of Exeter spokesman said: "We continue to believe there are serious inaccuracies in these judgements and we are appealing the decision of the employment appeals tribunal."

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