A BREAST cancer victim who claims a Worcester firm made her redundant because of her illness has vowed to see her fight through to the end.
Mother-of-one Liz Zatriqi said she was "gutted" that the employment tribunal board had decided to take a further four weeks to consider the evidence given during a two-day hearing in Birmingham.
She will not know its decision on her disability discrimination claim until December.
The 46-year-old divorcee was made redundant by Misys Financial Systems in January this year after working for the firm for 14 years.
"It has taken nine months to get this far and all the way up to this point I thought it would all be over after the two-day hearing and that kept me going," she said after yesterday's hearing.
"Now it is going to drag on but all I know is that I will see it through."
A decision on her unfair dismissal case, by unfair selection for redundancy, will be made in November but will not be released until December.
"The tribunal has really taken it out of me but I have no regrets," said Mrs Zatriqi, of Mayfield Avenue, Rainbow Hill. "I have been amazed at the level of support I have had. And my son Stewart has been my rock."
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997 and had time off for treatment. When she returned to work, a second manager was appointed to run the quotations department with her.
Mrs Zatriqi's legal representative, Valerie Francis, told the tribunal that this manager "usurped" her role.
After taking further time off work when she contracted secondary cancer, in summer 2001, she was called into a meeting a week before she intended to return full-time where she was told that her position was being made redundant.
Mrs Francis told the hearing that the firm did not have a genuine reason for laying her client off and that a proper consultation procedure was not carried out.
But Misys, in Buckholt Drive, Warndon, denied that Mrs Zatriqi's illness had anything to do with its decision.
Helen Corden, solicitor for the firm, told the tribunal that her role, along with that of four other employees, was found to be unnecessary following a strategic review.
"The applicant's employment was terminated not for any reason other than redundancy," she said.
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