“Inside the Shocking Dismissal: Why the Highest-Paid Employee Wasn’t Worth a Pay Rise”

These are the reasons a digital consultancy company gave for terminating the contract of its highest paid employee, after realising they couldn’t ‘afford’ to give her a pay rise.

In May, 2024 executive Grace Ejiga was sacked from her post at London-based company Olive Jar Digital months after she’d put in a request for pay review in the previous October. She had previously become the company’s highest-earning employee after her salary rose to £80,000 in order to prevent her looking for other employment.

However, a dip in the company’s cash reserves meant the she became ‘too expensive’ for the company, with Olive Jar Digital claiming the quality of Ejiga’s performance had decreased in order to justify not giving her a pay rise.

She was subsequently placed on a performance improvement plan (Pip) by the company’s founder. She was later dismissed while negotiating her departure from Olive Jar Digital on 21 May, 2024.

Believing she was wrongfully dismissed, digital consultancy executive took her former employer to an employment tribunal (Getty Stock Images)

Following the dismissal, Ejiga decided to take her former employer to a tribunal. During the hearing, Olive Jar Digital would make the following claims regarding Ejiga’s dismissal, which included allegations of ‘gross misconduct’ on her part (per The Telegraph).

• During a meeting in April 2024, Ejiga would be told for the first time that the company had ‘concerns’ over her performance. The feedback would come as a ‘considerable shock’ to Ejiga.
• Founding director Rajesh Thakrar would also claim there had been issues with ‘communication’ on Ejiga’s end and that she had ‘over delegated’ tasks.
• Ejiga’s decision to list herself as available to do consultancy work on LinkedIn had interfered with her job.
• Ejiga had taken a considerable amount of time off in lieu the previous year, after only taking four days.

Grace Ejiga was awarded a total of £25,014.01 in the tribunal (Grace Elija)

The employment tribunal would ultimately rule in Eliga’s favour, with the hearing stating the company ‘didn’t come close to providing evidence’ that she had committed ‘ordinary misconduct, let alone gross misconduct’.

“My impression is that the strongest factor was a desire to withdraw from the promise of a pay rise and press her to win more bids – financially driven,” employment judge Tamara Lewis said.

“As a result of the way [Olive Jar] had handled matters, she believed that the company had decided it was too expensive to give her a pay rise and wanted her out of the company.”

Ejiga was ultimately awarded £3,425 for unfair dismissal, £18,288.82 for wrongful dismissal and £3,300.19 for unauthorised deductions. £25,014.01 in total.

LADbible previously reached out to Olive Jar Digital for comment.