A FEMALE sales representative who claimed she suffered back problems after being given a smaller company car than her male colleagues has settled her claim for sex discrimination. Susan Jesshope claimed that salesmen at the greetings card firm where she worked were given 1.8-litre Ford Mondeos and Peugeot 406s while she was given a Vauxhall Astra 1.6 and as a result she aggravated a back injury.

An industrial tribunal at Croydon into Jesshope's claim of sex discrimination and constructive dismissal heard that she out-performed nine male sales reps to win the company's salesperson of the year title in 1998 but despite this her bosses refused to give her a better car. After months of asking for a new vehicle, the company ordered a doctor's report which stated she had a degenerative back problem which was being aggravated by the car.

The company eventually offered her the Ford Mondeo which one of her colleagues had been driving but she rejected it because it did not have a lumbar support and the car done more than 90,000 miles. Jesshope, who resigned from the company in May, settled her claim with an undisclosed agreement with her former bosses at Yorkshire-based Talking Pictures Ltd.