Monday 10th August 2015

A middle-aged accountant who said he was forced to dress up as Father Christmas and branded an "old buffer" has won his claim for unfair dismissal.

Dow Jones finance manager told an employment tribunal he was sidelined and forced out of his payroll job at the publishing giant.

The panel found Mr McClellan, who earned £72,000 a year, had been constructively and unfairly dismissed.

But it said that while he may have been hurt by being approached to be Santa, it did not find him to be the victim of sexist or ageist discrimination.

In documents submitted to the Central London Employment Tribunal, Mr McClellan said he was made to feel he was being singled out by his manager Azmina Airi.

Dow Jones, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, denied the allegation.

Mr McClellan said Ms Airi had branded him "rigid and stuck in my ways" at their first meeting after she was appointed in October 2013.

He told the tribunal that at Christmas 2013 "she demanded that I dress up as the secret Santa" and gave him "no option" to refuse.

He said he felt he had been typecast as a sexist, middle-aged man and resigned in February last year.

Dow Jones and Mr McClellan reached a financial settlement in private and declined to say what this amounted to.

Both also declined to comment on the judgment.