A MANAGERESS who quit her job because she was not given sick pay has been awarded more than #2000 compensation.

Mrs Catherine McFarlane, of Lochern Crescent, Paisley, told an industrial tribunal that her employers said they could not afford to give her sick pay.

But Enterprise Circuits Ltd, of Beardmore Way, Clydebank, claimed they did not pay out the money because it was not part of the contract of employment.

The company was formed in 1986 to make printed circuit boards and the production director is Mr Mark Briscoe and the managing director is his father, Mr William Briscoe.

Mrs McFarlane started working for Enterprise Circuits in November 1994 as a product operative and was paid an hourly rate plus overtime. But in July 1996 she had a discussion with Mark Briscoe and was promoted to quality manager - a salaried position with no overtime payment but, according to Mrs McFarlane, one with up to six months' sick pay.

At the end of November last year she went off to have an operation and the following month when she received her pay slip on Christmas Eve she saw she had only been paid statutory sick pay for the month of December.

The tribunal noted: ''She stated that she immediately telephoned William Briscoe and she said that she felt there must be a mistake since she should have been paid full pay. Mr Briscoe said that he would have to see his son, Mark. Later that day she telephoned a second time.

''She said that Mr Briscoe snr said that she could not get paid since the company was not in a position to pay because of their financial situation. She said that Mr Briscoe snr accepted that there was a liability to pay but said that they simply could not pay.''

After the New Year she again contacted the company, to be told there was no change in the position and she then decided she had no alternative but to resign.

Mr Briscoe snr in his evidence to the tribunal said Mrs McFarlane was not entitled to sick pay in terms of her contract but ''he accepted he possibly said that the company could not afford it''.

His son also claimed there was no new written contract when the worker was promoted and no mention of her being allowed sick pay.

In its written judgment the tribunal said: ''The tribunal preferred the evidence of Mrs McFarlane on the essential part of the evidence about what happened in July 1996.

''They accepted that she had been given a new contract and it had been part of that contract that she was to receive sick pay.

''The tribunal also believed that Mrs McFarlane approached her employers to pay the sick pay that she believed she was entitled to, but, this was refused not on a single occasion, but repeatedly.''

In finding that Mrs McFarlane had been unfairly dismissed through constructive dismissal the tribunal awarded #2114 compensation.