A former tutor at Hertford College claimed this week that he was unfairly dismissed from his post last year.
Dr Anthony Murphy, a Fellow and Tutor in Economics at Hertford from 2006 to 2010, and prior to that a Research Fellow at Nuffield College, left his job in Oxford after refusing to agree to a new contract which the college offered him. The contract would have given the college the right to lay him off with just one day’s notice.
Murphy appealed to an employment tribunal last week for £2,000 redundancy pay. He said, “it was clear that they wanted to lay me off”. He was told that his appeal is unlikely to be successful, since he voluntarily refused to sign the new contract.
Tribunal chairman Jessica Hill pointed out that under the terms of the contract he was offered, he would still have received full pay for three months after being laid off, and described this arrangement as “a fairly standard practice”.
If he wishes to persist with his appeal, Murphy will have to pay the deposit of £500 required to hold a full hearing.
Murphy’s claims mark the second time in recent months that controversy has arisen over the appointment of tutors at Hertford. In June, Cherwell revealed that one of the college’s lectureships in History is in jeopardy. Unless the college manages to raise the sum of £1.2m, they may be unable to appoint a successor to Dr Toby Barnard, a CUF lecturer in Modern History due to retire at the end of the next academic year.
A second year at Hertford commented, “I’m not sure about the details of the Murphy case, but reduced government funding means that it will become harder for the college to support the level of teaching we have had up to now.”
Dr Murphy currently lives and works in the United States, as Senior Research Economist and Policy Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. When questioned by Cherwell, he refused to comment at this stage in his hearing’s proceedings.
Dr John Landers, Principal of Hertford College, also declined to comment.
