World Snooker settle sex discrimination battle with referee Michaela Tabb after row over £1,000 bonus

• Snooker referee Michaela Tabb left the professional circuit in March 
• She has since brought a case against World Snooker, claiming sex discrimination, unfair dismissal and breach of contract 
• World Snooker announced they have agreed an out-of-court settlement
• It is understood World Snooker agreed an undisclosed financial settlement

By Nicholas Godden for MailOnline

Published: 07:12 EST, 8 September 2015 | Updated: 08:49 EST, 8 September 2015

Britain's best-known female snooker referee has settled a sex discrimination battle with the sport's bosses sparked by a £1,000 bonus.

Michaela Tabb - who officiated at the 2009 and 2012 World Championship finals - claimed she was unfairly dismissed earlier this year.

She told a tribunal the row centred on a £1,000 bonus paid in 2014 to her male colleagues but not her.

Former snooker referee Michaela Tabb arrives at the Crescent Centre, Bristol, for her employment tribunal

Tabb (left) stands alongside Ronnie O'Sullivan during the 2012 World Championship final at the Crucible

She claimed: 'I believe the only logical reason I have been treated differently is because I was a woman.'

Michaela, 47, brought the case in Bristol against World Snooker Limited under her married surname of McInnes.

She told the hearing the row devastated her and added: 'I had to act as if everything was all right. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat.

'I was an emotional wreck. It was the most difficult and horrific situation I have ever found myself in.'

She said she was so upset she flew home early from a tournament in Australia when she was signed off sick from work.

A series of appraisals and grievance meetings were held until December 2014. 

When her grievance appeal was dismissed, she resigned on January 8 this year and then launched her tribunal claim.

Michaela, from Dunfermline in Scotland, joined World Snooker in 2001 after being a pool referee for four years.

Her contract was cancelled in 2003 but she was reinstated and rose to the top.

As the first female snooker referee she has adjudicated the Welsh Open final in 2007, the Masters final in 2008 and the World Championship final in 2009 and 2012. 

Tabb was the first female to referee a World Championship final at the Crucible, Sheffield in 2009

The tribunal heard that Michaela and three male colleagues all got a 10 per cent pay cut in 2010 which was reinstated the following year. 

In 2012 they all got a £1,000 bonus in their pay packet, and again the next.

But in 2014, while the other three referees received a bonus, Michaela did not.

Steven Dawson, World Snooker chief executive officer, said she did not get the bonus because she had not attended the 2014 awards dinner - and not because of her sex.

In his statement, he said: ‘Mrs McInnes did not attend the 2013 awards. However, neither she nor other staff who did not attend were penalised that year because the importance of their attendance had not previously been raised with them.

Tabb poses for photographs with the World Championship trophy on the table at the Crucible in 2007

‘I therefore agreed with Mr Hearn that it would be made clear to all staff who had not attended the awards that they were expected to attend the following year.

‘Mrs McInnes did not attend in 2014. Her decision to ignore a clear request was, for me, the final straw.The consensus was therefore that Mrs McInnes should not receive a bonus.’

The hearing, which began on Friday, was settled after just two days with the parties agreeing on a confidential settlement on Monday evening.

Michaela's lawyer Casper Glyn said there would be no further comments on the case.

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