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Indian-origin employee of UK’s Royal Mail, Kam Jhuthi, has won a compensation of over Rs 24 crore over a bullying claim. Eight years ago, Jhuthi claimed before an employment tribunal that her boss had intimidated and harassed her after she raised concerns that a colleague had got their bonus illegitimately. The compensation is believed to be one of the largest compensation settlements for the Royal Mail.
What had Jhuthi claimed?
Jhuthi started working for the postal service as a media specialist at its MarketReach unit in London for 50,000 pounds annually in 2013. In 2019, a Supreme Court hearing was told that after her joining, while shadowing a colleague, Jhuthi started suspecting the colleague had breached the firm’s policy linked to Tailor-Made Incentives (TMIs), which helped the colleague meet performance targets and secure a bonus and in effect “defrauding the company”.
Jhuthi’s concerns were confirmed by a TMI expert later.
When she started experiencing stress and expressed her concerns over her boss’ behaviour at the Royal Mail, she was granted a new line manager and was also told that she was not matching the expected progress. In March 2014, she was signed off with work-related stress, anxiety and depression. Jhuthi never returned to work after this.
What did the tribunal say?
The tribunal has found that there had been a “catastrophic” impact on Jhuthi over the boss’ treatment of her, as per a report by The Daily Telegraph. A statement by the tribunal said it has made a total award of 2,365,614.13 pounds payable to Jhuthi by the Royal Mail. However, it said the award is stayed pending Royal Mail’s appeal against the tribunal’s original judgement on remedies from 2022, which was sent to both the parties.
The tribunal’s statement further read that of the total award, Royal Mail will make a payment of 250,000 pounds (over Rs 24 crore) to Jhuthi. The stay does not apply to this particular sum, the tribunal added. Both parties have agreed that the Royal Mail will be paying the sum within 14 days of the date of the hearing.
The tribunal had earlier concluded that the postal service had been “high-handed, malicious, insulting and oppressive” in its conduct.
