Athlete forced to travel 800 miles for meeting that boss didn't show up for wins £149,000

An athlete whose boss made her travel through the night to attend a meeting while she was at an international sports competition in Germany, only to not turn up himself, has said her £149,000 compensation is "not just about me".

Beth Littlewood, a former canoe polo champion, spent years pursuing a string of grievances against Nuffield Health, the company she worked for as a personal trainer at its Bridgend gym.

She said she hoped the outcome would help thousands of personal trainers (PTs) across the country.

Nuffield Health said it was "committed to providing a fair and supportive working environment for all colleagues" but could not comment further due to an appeal process.

Littlewood, from Bridgend, first started working for Nuffield Health in 2015.

In an interview with BBC Wales following the conclusion of an employment tribunal, she said there were "multiple grievances throughout my career about pay-related issues".

Early problems were more easily resolved internally, but she later felt she had no choice but to escalate her case.

In July last year, an employment tribunal found Littlewood's complaints were all "well-founded".

These included concerns about unauthorised deductions from her wages and holiday pay and her unfair dismissal.

She submitted a grievance, which was not upheld and what followed, she said, was a series of bullying incidents, including changing rotas without clear communication, inconsistency in dealing with holiday requests, no praise for successful PT sales and a lack of promotion opportunities.

In January 2023, she was told she would face disciplinary proceedings, with the firm claiming she had been submitting hours worked under an incorrect pay level, among other things.

But the tribunal found this was not the case, with the judge adding: "The incidents were in the main caused by poor communication and of a trivial nature to the degree that we have concluded a reasonable employer would have dealt with as management issues.

"They should never have been escalated to the degree they were. Common sense was wholly departed from."

Following the disciplinary investigation, Littlewood had some time signed off sick.

Over the summer of 2023, she made continued attempts to speak to managers about returning to work, but they did not engage with her.

The "last straw" occurred when Littlewood travelled to Brandenburg, Germany, to compete in the European Canoe Polo Championships in September 2023.

She had submitted an annual leave request to cover her time away on 7 June and been open with her managers about her plans.

She flagged that the leave had not yet been approved on 8 August but did not receive a reply until 7 September, while she was in Germany, when she was told by one of her managers, James Cheadle, that she did not have approved leave - either annual leave or a valid sick note - and must attend in person for a meeting on 12 September.

"The claimant, very conscious she was on a final written warning, drove back through the night from Germany to make sure that she was at the meeting," the report stated.

But, when she arrived in Bridgend after travelling 800 miles, she was told Cheadle was not there and was away on training.

Judge Samantha Moore said: "If there was one act by the respondent that demonstrated the contemptuous manner of the treatment of the claimant, this was it.

"To refuse leave requested months earlier, knowing what competing meant to the claimant, and require her to attend a meeting, then not bother to turn up was contemptuous and wholly unreasonable."

She added Littlewood had "made considerable effort and under considerable duress to attend a meeting" and Cheadle "did not have the courtesy to be at that meeting or to make arrangements for someone to meet with her in his place".

Littlewood, who represented herself throughout the employment tribunal, said the process was "really stressful".

"You don't know where to go, you don't know what to do when you're in that situation. It was a long time until I realised that there was something further... an external body that exists to help you with these situations.

"I had no legal training. I just had my meticulous records that I'd been keeping.

"But I knew through it all, I knew what happened to me was wrong."

In February 2026, a remedy hearing ordered that Littlewood be paid a total of about £149,000 in compensation to cover all the upheld claims.

But, for her, the real win was in shining a light on the "systemic" miscalculating of PT holiday pay by Nuffield Health.

The tribunal found that, in her case, "the holiday pay was not calculated on a true average of gross pay or in accordance with government guidelines".

"This case is not just about me," she said, adding the judgement could now be used "in any future tribunal considering a similar case".

"I won't pretend the process was easy. It was years of my life and it was exhausting, doing it alone against a large employer with a full legal team behind them.

"What kept me going was knowing that if I could get the full written reasons on record - and they are now publicly available - it wouldn't be just about me anymore.

"Nuffield have over 100 clubs across the UK, and there are personal trainers in every single one of them that are all entitled to holiday pay, calculated on their available earnings.

"That was what felt worth fighting for. Hopefully this is going to help hundreds and thousands of PTs in the country."

While she said there was extra pressure, balancing her legal fight with her competitive sport commitments.

"It's super difficult... I was the one questioning these managers on stands. I had to put my feelings aside [about] the experience I've had with these managers.

"I actually think being an athlete has helped, because you feel all these emotions, all these things that come over you when you're playing and you need to just perform.

"Every time it was hard and I felt like throwing the towel in, I was like, no, I need to fight this because if I didn't fight this, who was going to fight the corner for all the PTs?

"Coming to the end of this whole experience, now looking back, I'm proud and all the work I've done."

While she said she understood "it's nice to be compensated" and she hoped the win would help her move out of her parents' house, she added "justice would look like them doing the right thing".

Littlewood left Nuffield after the Germany incident and, while the World Championships in China in 2024 was her last canoe polo event for Great Britain, she said you "never really retire".

"I'm still training, I'm playing in the Spanish League, in the Italian League, and I'm coaching the Danish ladies," she said, adding she also runs her own PT business.

Nuffield Health said it was "committed to providing a fair and supportive working environment for all colleagues, underpinned by clear policies and procedures".

It added: "While we respect the tribunal process, we are disappointed with the decision in this case. As this remains a legal matter, and subject to appeal, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage."