A FORMER St Andrews University professor who investigated Harry Potter-type cloaks that make the wearer ‘invisible’ did not want to disappear to another post without receiving holiday pay.
Ulf Leonhardt, who is now at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, has been made to accept a settlement of more than £5,000 from St Andrews by an employment tribunal.
The German-born professor of theoretical physics, who had a special interest in the science of invisibility, was offered the sum at the outset by the university but wanted more.
It was pay for 34 days’ holidays that he did not take. He thought he was due pay for another six days but this was rejected by the tribunal in Dundee.
The tribunal heard that Professor Leonhardt, 47, did not have a specific contractual leave entitlement from St Andrews, but this was not unusual for senior academics.
He was part of custom and practice arrangements whereby leave should be taken in consultation with the head of school and the permission of the principal.
In July 2012, Professor Leonhardt told the university it was possible he would resign. He had not taken holidays and he wanted to know the compensation he was entitled to receive.
Initially the university calculated he was due 40 days but this was reduced to 34.
It was discovered that he had taken three days holiday in Marbella during a six-day stay in the Spanish resort and was also treated as having taken three days holiday between Christmas and New Year.
The professor had a gross annual salary of £65,952 from which it was calculated that the 34 days’ holiday pay would be £5,297.
Professor Leonhardt contended that he was due 40 days’ holiday pay, but tribunal judge Ian McFatridge said the claimant’s evidence was vague.
“On several occasions he accepted that the initial evidence he had given was in fact incorrect but described this as being due to lack of precision on his part and on one occasion to using an estimate,” the judge said.
Later, Mr Fatridge’s judgment said: “Mr Leonhardt questioned the methodology of calculation adopted by the university as to what 34 days equated to.
“When questioned on this it became clear that he had never actually carried out any form of arithmetic calculation but simply asserted that their calculation was obviously incorrect.”
The judge accepted the calculation of the university, whose methodology “appeared perfectly acceptable,” and said the sum due to Professor Leonhardt was £5,297 which the university had already tendered to him.
aargo@thecourier.co.uk