A 57-YEAR-OLD mother sacked from a £55,000-a-year executive job at her son's research firm, has won the latest stage of her battle for compensation.

Nina Cobb was dismissed from her role as financial director at Melksham-based Molecular Sensing in April.

Appearing at an industrial tribunal in Bristol on Monday, Mrs Cobb continued her battle for compensation by saying a pay review, which saw her receive £10,000 less than another director, was part of a sexual discrimination policy waged against her.

Fighting back tears, Mrs Cobb once again faced her eldest son Ben, who founded the company, in a bid to win her unequal pay and sex discrimination case.

An earlier claim of unfair dismissal was thrown out in September by the tribunal, with Mrs Cobb, of Bishops Cannings near Devizes, ordered to pay more than £7,000 in costs.

Speaking about the stress of receiving hate e-mails from her son since starting the litigation procedure, Mrs Cobb told the tribunal she was awarded a lower pay rise than commercial director John Clarkson because of a discriminatory policy.

She also said she was arrested by the police for not returning a company laptop computer despite offering to take it back.

Representing the Melksham-based company, Joanna Head said Dr Clarkson's role had changed to technical director last October, giving him greater responsibility and more chances to use his science-based qualifications.

Highlighting Mrs Cobb's CV compared to Dr Clarkson's, Mrs Head said despite years of experience, Mrs Cobb had no qualifications on paper and a lot of jobs in fields not relevant to the company.

She said: "Dr Clarkson uses

his very high level of qualifications constantly in day-to-day activities.

"Mrs Cobb was doing the sort of job that a reasonably trained lay person could do.

"She wasn't, with the greatest of respect, conducting the job of a really high-powered financial director.

"She says that the chief executive officer was operating a discriminatory policy against her but it centres around the question of equal pay and nothing else."

Miss Head said the sexual discrimination claim had been made too late after the date of the incident and could not be considered in the case.

Dr Ben Cobb, appearing as a witness against his mother, said Dr Clarkson's job was of greater value to the company than his mother's, justifying the extra pay.

He said: "At that stage of company development, Dr Clarkson's skills were of more value than someone in a financial director role. The company could have survived without a finance director. It was more critical we did not go wrong on the technical side."

Molecular Sensing, located on the Challeymead Business Park in Bath Road, became a fully-fledged company in 1998.

Employing a board of directors and a team of researchers, the company has received more than £7m in funding to research and develop devices to detect DNA.

The tribunal ruled the company had a case to answer in the unequal pay claim and ordered a full hearing in the New Year.

The sexual discrimination claim was dismissed because the application was made too late.