Bullied City worker wins $1.5m

A City worker employed in a “department from hell” has won about $1.5m damages for bullying.

Helen Green, 36, sued Deutsche Bank Group Services (UK) Ltd claiming harassment by colleagues and a lack of support from bosses.

She said colleagues stonewalled her, laughed in her face, blew raspberries and told her: “You stink”. But the firm denied any bullying or harassment.

After the ruling, she said bullying was a widespread hidden menace in the City.

Mr Justice Owen, at the High Court, said Miss Green had been subjected to a “relentless campaign of mean and spiteful behaviour designed to cause her distress”.

She said she had suffered psychiatric injury after working in the bank’s secretariat division from 1997 – when she joined as a company secretary assistant – until 2001.

The court heard Miss Green, of Tower Hamlets, east London, was verbally abused, ignored and denigrated to the point where she would sit at her desk silently crying.

She was made to feel uncomfortable by “crude and lewd comments” and her colleagues would remove her name from circulation lists, hide her post and remove papers from her desk.

The court heard Miss Green believed she was targeted by four women – Valerie Alexander, manager of the insurance division; her PA Fiona Gregg; telephone directory administrator Daniella Dolbear; and Jenny Dixon, a PA.

She denied doing anything to justify their behaviour and said she never talked down to them.

Miss Green was promoted twice before she received stress counselling in March 2000, paid for by the company, and assertiveness training.

In September 2000, she had a nervous breakdown and was in hospital on suicide watch.

Five months later, Miss Green returned to work but relapsed. Her job was kept open until September 2003 when her employment was terminated.

Medical experts on both sides agreed she developed a depressive disorder but could not agree on the cause.

Deutsche Bank denied breach of statutory duty or bullying, instead relying on Miss Green’s vulnerability to mental illness.

The bank’s counsel, Geoffrey Brown, said evidence given on Ms Green’s behalf appeared to be describing the “department from hell”.

The judge awarded her £35,000 for pain and suffering, £25,000 for her disadvantage in the labour market, £128,000 for lost earnings and £640,000 for future loss of earnings including a pension.

After the ruling, Miss Green, now training for an academic career, said: “My case was not an isolated one. At the trial the court heard evidence about other victims.

“Not only does Deutsche Bank have to put its house in order, but all City businesses will have to do more than pay lip-service to this hidden menace.”

A spokeswoman for the bank said: “Deutsche Bank respects the judgment of the court. No decision about whether to appeal has been made at this stage.”