EITHER someone is lying, or there has been a big misunderstanding.

That was the suggestion made by Jeremy Lewis, the barrister representing Cheshire East Council at an ongoing employment tribunal hearing.

Ms Wallace, a former HR officer from Connah’s Quay, has taken the local authority to tribunal after her employment at CEC came to an end on December 31, 2016.

It came just two weeks after she met with Peter Bates, CEC’s now-suspended chief operating officer, who insists Ms Wallace turned down both the offer of a permanent contract and an extension of her fixed-term contract – which ended on December 31.

Mr Lewis said: “Either Mr Bates is lying, or you are lying, or there was one of two misunderstandings.

“That was either a misunderstanding by you, because you were talking about objective justifications and that is what you understood was being discussed when Mr Bates raised the temporary extension.

“Or there was a misunderstanding by Mr Bates because you were talking about there being no objective justification and he took that to be a rejection of the offer.”

Ms Wallace, who agreed with the suggestion, had told the tribunal that an objective justification was needed for CEC to employ someone on a fixed-term contract – and said there was none for the extension to her contract.

Her fixed-term contract had been threatened by a HR staff restructure in November 2016, but this was paused the following month and set to be resumed in January.

The tribunal heard that Ms Wallace was offered a permanent contract on December 6, and she said she reluctantly accepted that offer.

“I did not believe that it was a sincere offer,” Ms Wallace said.

“It was an offer that asked me to withdraw my grievances. It was a work-around and I was very uncomfortable with it professionally.”

On November 24, 2016, Ms Wallace had submitted grievances to Mr Bates on issues surrounding her treatment and that of other fixed-term employees in the HR restructure – before she submitted further grievances the following month.

She also emailed Mike Suarez, CEC’s now-suspended chief executive, raising concerns under the subject ‘Whistleblowing Disclosure’ on November 30.

Mr Lewis – and witnesses who gave evidence supporting CEC’s case – said Ms Wallace did not accept the permanent offer.

He told the tribunal Ms Wallace wanted a ‘punitive approach’ and to challenge Sara Barker, head of strategic HR, who had overseen the staff restructure.

But Ms Wallace refuted his claim, and insisted she ‘always wanted reinstatement’ at CEC.

She added: “It all comes down to the fact that as a HR professional I felt that the values of my job – the ethics, the policies and the procedures – were being undermined.”

Ms Wallace’s departure from CEC came shortly after she produced a report on October 28, 2016, suggesting the council had failed to pay the minimum wage to some care workers who had undertook ‘sleep-in shifts’.

Her case in the tribunal is that she had tried to raise the issue through the whistleblowing process – but CEC contends this.

The tribunal heard that Ms Wallace was then asked by Mrs Barker to conduct extra work on the matter, but Ms Wallace said she had ‘too much work’ on at the time to take it on.

Mr Lewis said: “So you were a whistleblower that refused to make recommendations about what needed to be done?

“Those are not the steps that somebody concerned about the issue. Rather, they are the steps of somebody concerned about themselves.”

Ms Wallace responded that the barrister was ‘absolutely wrong’, and that he had overestimated the influence she had on senior management.

Her report was also criticised for being unclear by Mr Lewis.

“You have made it quite clear you think it’s a crap report,” Ms Wallace said.

“It was my priority. The national minimum wage was my priority. It was my issue. I’m sorry my writing does not reach your standards.

“And I am sorry. Because if I had done what you said maybe I would not be in this situation. So I’m sorry but this was the best that I could do at the time, and I felt it was good enough.”

The hearing was adjourned until Thursday.