An academic recently won a legal battle against Oxford University after being unfairly dismissed over accusing a colleague of plagiarism.
Former Oxford academic Dr Amin Moghaddam and Professor Quentin Sattentau collaborated on a groundbreaking study which found that dry-roasted peanuts are more likely to trigger an allergic reaction than raw peanuts.
A 2014 paper outlining their research was released with Sattentau as the lead author, which Moghaddam claimed to be a breach of academic guidelines as he was the main contributor.
In 2018, Sattentau produced a review of the paper in which he was cited as the sole senior author with Moghaddam named “third author”, leading to further accusations of plagiarism.
Moghaddam was dismissed in 2019 after 16 years of employment at the University, with the reasons cited as being unable to secure further funding and his fixed contract ending.
Following the termination of his contract in March 2019, Moghaddam took the university, Sattentau, and his chief supervisor, Professor Matthew Freeman, to an employment tribunal which ruled in favour of the University and threw out his unfair dismissal claim. However, Moghaddam has won his recent appeal of the tribunal’s verdict.
Although the initial tribunal concluded that Moghaddam had not been unfairly dismissed but rather the funding he required was simply not available, Judge Shanks overturned their decision and concluded that it could not be supported, stating that the “breakdown in relationship” with Sattentau and the “detriment because of whistleblowing, protected disclosures based on his allegations about Sattentau stealing his work” had not been adequately considered in the first tribunal.
Dr Moghaddam’s case will now be taken to another tribunal to consider whether he is due any compensation, having already succeeded in two of his four grounds of appeal.
