A POPULAR swimming instructor has been given almost £10,000 in compensation after being unfairly dismissed from her job.

Josephine Gibson, 56, was employed by Durham City Council to work at Durham City Baths in August 2000.

As an instructor with 18 years' experience, her responsibilities included formulating a swimming programme, training staff, and implementing health and safety procedures.

A year after she started, she was running a range of classes, including aqua fitness and parent and baby sessions, and teaching 150 children a week.

She was shocked when the council gave her two weeks' notice.

Ms Gibson, who now lives in Berwick upon Tweed, said: "They said they were restructuring the staff and that after a year, they could not afford to keep me on.

"My workmanship was nothing to do with why they asked me to leave.

"It was because they found that some of the lifeguards had a teaching qualification and it was half the rate of pay for them to do the teaching, but they did not have anyone to teach the staff."

Ms Gibson said the council claimed she was a casual worker, so could be dismissed without going through the procedures required for permanent staff.

She said news of her departure was met with disbelief.

She said: "Durham City Council was inundated with phone calls saying 'why have you got rid of her?'

"I also got quite a few letters from parents."

After leaving Durham City Baths, Ms Gibson started running classes at Framwellgate Primary School's swimming pool, where she was followed by many of her pupils.

She took the council to an industrial tribunal, which ruled last year that she had been unfairly dismissed.

Ms Gibson was due to attend a remedies hearing recently, but the council agreed to give her almost £10,000 in an out-of-court settlement.

She said: "It was not about the money, it was the injustice of the whole thing."

A council spokeswoman said its procedures relating to casual staff would be reviewed in light of the case.