Singer disputes TV treatment at employment tribunal

Published on 23 Jul 2010 under category: legal

A former nurse who auditioned to take part in Britain's Got Talent is taking the television show to employment tribunal over her treatment.
Emma Amelia Pearl Czikai is accusing the programme of "exploitation, humiliation, degradation and barbarism" after she was rejected as a contestant in 2009.
Miss Czikai disputed at an employment tribunal pre-hearing the judge's verdict that she had "horrible singing voice" and claimed that she was prevented from giving her best performance as she has fibromyalgia.
The 54-year-old is seeking £300,000 for hurt feelings, as well as £1 million in compensation and £1.25 million for loss of earnings.
A clip of her performing to a better standard in a later programme was not broadcast, Miss Czikai claimed.
She added that Britain's Got Talent were therefore seeking "to accrue profit to themselves through exploitation of a film clip that they know perpetrates a lie that I cannot sing", the Daily Mail reported.
Lawyers for the programme are disputing the need for an employment tribunal on the basis that they were not Miss Czikai's employer and did not have prior knowledge of her medical condition.

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