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City secretary awarded £800k after "horrendous" abuse

01/08/2006

A City secretary who was the victim of persistent verbal abuse and bullying has been awarded more than £800,000 in damages from her former employer Deutsche Bank.

The high court in London ruled that Helen Green, from Tower Hamlets, suffered a "relentless campaign of mean and spiteful behaviour designed to cause her distress", and deemed that the financial firm should pay compensation for not preventing the abuse by workers.

Mr Justice Owen said any "reasonable employer", would have taken steps to stop the abuse "once it knew or ought to have known of such conduct".

Deutsche Bank has been ordered to pay £35,000 in mental anguish and suffering costs, £25,000 for harming Ms Green's overall career prospects, £128,000 for lost earnings and £640,000 for lost future earnings and a company pension. The bank will also have to pay the secretary's legal costs.

Ms Green described her working conditions between 1997 and 2001 as the "department from hell", citing continuing harassment by four female ex-colleagues, which at time resorted to 'schoolyard name-calling' that led her to cry quietly at her desk.

The secretary eventually permanently left her post in September 2003

After two successive promotions she denied ever talking down to Valerie Alexander, an insurance division manager, Daniella Dolbear, a telephone directory administrator, her personal assistant Fiona Gregg and another aide, Jenny Dixon.

Deutsche Bank had denied the charges, alluding to the 36-year-old's subsequent nervous breakdown and being placed in a secure hospital as being a result of Ms Green's fragile mental condition.

Speaking outside court today, Ms Green said she was "delighted" that the "malicious" abuse case had finally been settled.

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