A POPULAR snooker referee has settled a sex discrimination battle with the sport's bosses.
Michaela Tabb - who officiated at the 2009 and 2012 World Championship final - claimed she was unfairly dismissed earlier this year.
She told a tribunal the row concerned a £1,000 bonus paid in 2014 to her male colleagues but not her.
The referee from Dunfermline, Fife, claimed: "I believe the only logical reason I have been treated differently is because I was a woman."
Ms Tabb, 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 alright. 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.
She joined World Snooker in 2001 after being a pool referee for four years.
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.
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, Ms Tabb 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.
The hearing, which began on Friday, was settled after just two days with the parties agreeing on a confidential settlement on Monday evening.
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