A claim of bullying and harassment against British Airways, brought by a former employee who says the company ruined her health and her career as an accountant, has been withdrawn due to uncertainty over legal costs.
Jo Anne Brown says that when she was on secondment in New York, a manager acted unfairly towards her from the day he started. She claims he persistently criticised her, repeatedly threatened her with her job and company car, removed staff from reporting to her and further isolated her by removing her desk and computer and reallocating her telephone extension whilst she was off sick.
Ms Brown alleges that none of her complaints to senior managers and human resources were investigated or acted upon properly. In 2001 she says she suffered a breakdown, attempted suicide and required a two and half month stay in a psychiatric ward for severe depression.
The case was due to go to court on 5th September; but Ms Brown says she has been forced to withdraw because after-the-event insurance that she took out three years ago to cover against losing her case has been revoked. This left Ms Brown, now 37, potentially liable for both her own trial costs and BA's should she lose. She estimates these costs at £40–50k.
A BA spokeswoman told OUT-LAW that the airline had been “ready to deny all the allegations in court,” but had no further comment.
Ms Brown said, “To have my insurance revoked is devastating, to not have my day in court to attempt to hold those I feel responsible as accountable for their actions is soul-destroying.” But she continues to campaign against bullying in the workplace.
She set up bulliedatBritishAirways.com as a support site for other BA staff. She is also responsible for Just Fight On!, an anti-bullying community website.
Awareness of bullying in the workplace among employers – and the consequent risk of litigation – is rising, according to Emma Grossmith, an employment law specialist with Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM. "Employers are not obliged to have a bullying and harassment policy, but it is good practice to have one and to train staff to follow it," she said.
Guidance on workplace bullying
Guidance on bullying was published last month by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) in association with Acas (the UK Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) and Unison (the UK’s biggest trade union).
The guide outlines factors that contribute towards an organisational bullying culture and urges managers to be clear on the procedures for dealing with complaints. It also calls on managers to put preventative ‘anti-bullying’ measures in place.
Signs of bullying include constant criticism, intimidation, and the blocking of promotion. The guide also recommends the development of clear and concise policies to tackle it – perhaps including a statement of commitment from senior management and examples of unacceptable behaviour.
The guide also outlines what to do if bullying does occur, emphasising that attention must be focused not only on the individuals involved, but the culture that allowed the bullying to take place.
OUT-LAW put the CMI guidelines to Jo Anne Brown. She considered them to be "a good base"; but she warned that "particular care needs to be taken with behaviour that is malicious or where bullying is a repeated pattern for someone."
She said the company culture also has to allow witnesses to come forward without fear of reprisals.
"The nature of bullying means much of it happens behind closed doors," she explained. "Where there are witnesses it’s natural that they don’t risk being the next target so it’s very difficult to get them to step forward"
She pointed out that there is a much better chance of proving a grievance and getting action taken when there are witnesses.
“We also need to change what happens when victims do come forward," she said. "To seriously tackle bullying needs the buy-in of every employee – be they victim, witness, bully or manager – because at some point a person may be any one of these."
