A council employee has said she wants more than £10,000 compensation from Oxfordshire County Council after being suspended from her job.

Elishia Meade was wrongly suspended for four months after lodging she made a complaint about being passed over for promotion in favour of a less-qualified competitor, Reading Employment Tribunal ruled.

The hearing in April heard that Ms Meade, 34, of Blackbird Leys, applied for the post of senior social inclusion officer in 2011 but was not shortlisted. When Ms Meade complained to her line manager Iain Watson she said she was “bullied” by staff.

In January 2012, she was suspended on full pay for 18 months during an investigation.

Mr Watson claimed that in May 2012 Ms Meade made a threatening phone call to him but an internal investigation found no evidence of it. That November he was reprimanded by council bosses for overlooking Ms Meade for promotion, and later resigned.

Employment judge Robert Salter dismissed 11 of Ms Meade’s 13 claims against the council but found it wrongly kept her from returning to work between May and September 2012 after Mr Watson’s allegation.

The council said it would appeal, because Ms Meade was signed off sick in June 2012 and so, a spokesman said, “she could not have returned to work”.

Mr Salter ruled on June 5 that the council “victimised” her.

The case has been adjourned for a remedy hearing later this year.