EWJ June 2024 web - Journal - Page 44
£4.6m in Damages Awarded to Former
Employee of the London Borough of
Hammersmith and Fulham
Doyle Clayton client, Rachael Wright-Turner, has been awarded £4.6m in damages, by an
Employment Tribunal, after suing her former employer, the London Borough of Hammersmith
and Fulham, for disability discrimination. This is believed to be one of the highest, and
potentially the highest, figure for a judgment of this kind.
A Tribunal found in her favour in 2021, and also
found that the Council’s officers had given untrue
evidence to the Tribunal. The matter was then held
over for a separate hearing to determine the damages
award. The judgment on that decision was handed
down on 13 March 2024, and awarded Ms WrightTurner a total of £4,580,577.39.
Tribunal which has the express purpose of punishing
conduct – that which is “oppressive, arbitrary or unconstitutional” - rather than merely compensating a
victim for their loss. Awards for exemplary damages
are extremely rare and it is thought that this is the first
example of their use by any Employment Tribunal in
at least a decade, and potentially longer.
Formerly the Director of Public Service Reform at
Hammersmith and Fulham, the Tribunal heard that
Ms Wright-Turner suffered from Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a consequence of her work
for a previous employer, spearheading the response to
the Grenfell Tower tragedy. In 2021, the Tribunal
concluded that the Council’s discrimination on the
basis of her PTSD was the reason for her dismissal,
and that senior officers at Hammersmith and Fulham,
including Chief Executive Kim Dero, had “acted to
deliberately mislead” her. The Tribunal also found
that Council officers had been dishonest in their evidence to the Tribunal, and that in giving evidence on
oath, Ms Dero and Hammersmith and Fulham’s Interim Director for Corporate Services, Mark Grimley,
had “sought to rely on facts which they knew to be untrue”. Additionally, it found that the Council’s Chief
Executive, its Interim Head of Corporate Services, its
Strategic Director of Governance and Finance and
Section 151 Officer, and the Council’s Borough Solicitor and Monitoring Officer, were all involved in a
deliberate deception.
Doyle Clayton partner Peter Daly, who acted for Ms
Wright-Turner, said:
“This is one of the largest awards ever made by an
Employment Tribunal. It reflects both the scale of what
Rachael has suffered, and the seriousness of the unlawful conduct by her former employer. “The award of exemplary damages is particularly noteworthy and it is indicative that
Hammersmith and Fulham’s conduct fell egregiously below
any acceptable standard for a public authority.
“Rachael was an extremely senior and successful public
servant, on a career path that had every chance of taking her
to the very top of her profession. That possibility was denied
her by the unlawful actions of Hammersmith and Fulham,
which were catastrophic for Rachael personally as well as
professionally.
“While the size of the award is eye catching, it highlights the
scale of what Rachael has suffered. We are pleased to have
been able to secure this for her, but, in Rachael’s own words,
“I’d rather none of this had ever happened and I had just
been allowed to do a job that I loved. I would give back every
penny if it meant I could work again.”
At the remedy hearing in January 2024, the Tribunal
heard that the effects of the dismissal on Ms WrightTurner had been extremely severe. In the period
since her dismissal, her health had been damaged so
significantly as to make it likely that she would never
work again; expert evidence to this effect, and that the
reason for this was Hammersmith and Fulham’s unlawful conduct, was adduced by Ms Wright-Turner. In
addition, her marriage had ended, and repossession
proceedings had been started because she had been
unable to pay mortgage arrears which had arisen as a
consequence of her lack of income. Although the
judgment making the award has been handed down,
the reasons behind the award are still awaited.
Rachael Wright-Turner said:
“Because of what Hammersmith and Fulham have done to
me, I have lost nearly everything. Despite the size of the award,
I don’t know that I can ever recover. But I am pleased that
after six years of litigation, during which they fought me every
step of the way, Hammersmith and Fulham has finally been
held to account.
“The actions of the LBHF leadership are now plain for all to
see. I hope that there will be a proper inquiry into what has
been a scandalous misuse of public money – in the damages
that have been awarded, but also in the costs incurred by six
years of litigation, in which Hammersmith and Fulham engaged one of the most expensive law firms in London. Those
who discriminated against me have had their actions drawn
into the light, but those who forced this case to go the distance
and who have spent all this public money have not had any
scrutiny at all. I hope that this scrutiny will now follow.
Exemplary damages against Hammersmith and
Fulham were also awarded. This is only available
against “servants of the government”, and are the only
category of damages available to an Employment
EXPERT WITNESS JOURNAL
42
JUNE 2024