A CITY school worker “illegally” taped a disciplinary hearing by using a tape machine secretly stashed in her bag, a tribunal has heard.

The hearing in Liverpool was told that support assistant Jeanette Ferguson, 41, was sacked for gross misconduct from Northcote Primary School, in Walton, after signing up to a jobs agency and failing to inform bosses her GP had deemed her fit to return to work, following a year off with stress.

Ms Ferguson is claiming unfair dismissal saying she suffered “bullying in the workplace”, and her sacking in October, 2008, stemmed from her role as a school Unison representative – something headteacher Roy Morgan “could not accept.”

Tim Kenward, who is representing the school, said Ms Ferguson, from Walton, had secretly taped governing officials at both her disciplinary hearing and unsuccessful appeal.

The recording device, concealed in her bag, was left running and recorded private conversations while she left the room.

Mr Kenward said: “That is certainly illegal.”

Miss Ferguson, who is representing herself, told the tribunal she only taped the hearings because minutes taken on previous occasions had been inaccurate and she “needed some evidence”.

Tribunal Judge Dawn Shotter said unless legal argument could be offered, the transcript of her recordings cannot be heard as evidence. She said: “I am concerned that tapes of private conversations have been made behind people’s backs.”

Giving evidence, Charles Cookson, chair of the governing disciplinary panel, said Ms Ferguson had been given the all- clear to return to work by her doctor in a note signed on November 1, 2007.