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An ex-Royal Mail employee who was dismissed for whistleblowing has been awarded more than £2.3 million in compensation, following a lengthy legal battle.
In 2019 the Supreme Court found that Ms Jhuti, a media specialist who worked in Royal Mail Group’s MarketReach unit, was unfairly dismissed and suffered detriments after she raised concerns that Ofcom guidance was being breached, and about how some employee bonuses were being awarded.
Detriments included being bullied, harassed and intimidated by her manager, who imposed mandatory weekly one-to-one meetings and targets solely on the claimant; being asked to provide her key contacts from her previous employment; and being invited to accept three months’ pay, and subsequently, a year’s salary, to leave Royal Mail.
It was also found that Royal Mail had deliberately failed to provide an outcome to her grievance and appeal in a timely manner.
Jhuti went off sick and left the company in 2013.
An employment tribunal hearing to discuss compensation for unfair dismissal was originally scheduled for 2016, but was postponed as there were several appeals over a number of years, culminating in the Supreme Court’s 2019 judgment which finally determined that she was automatically unfairly dismissed.
Jhuti claimed she had suffered severe depression, anxiety, panic attacks and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of her treatment at Royal Mail. Evidence suggested she had not been able to work since losing her job because of her mental health.
The employment tribunal finally held a hearing to discuss compensation in 2022, and in November the judge recommended that Royal Mail pay £109,065 in compensation and £12,500 in aggravated damages. However, the tribunal directed that the final amount should be agreed between the parties at a later point.
However, the latest judgment from the London Central employment tribunal states that Royal Mail and Jhuti’s solicitors failed to calculate compensation themselves, mainly because they could not agree on the correct methodology for calculating future pension losses.
Jhuti’s legal team requested another employment tribunal hearing, which took place in February.
The tribunal has ordered Royal Mail to pay a total of £2,365,614.13. This comprised awards for detriment, past losses including pension, future losses including pension, a basic award, Acas uplift and an award for tax.
The judgment, which was sent to Jhuti and Royal Mail in February but has only this week been published, said that Jhuti’s future pension losses should be calculated on the same basis as future loss of earnings.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Royal Mail has a zero-tolerance approach to bullying, harassment, or discrimination of any kind. We value the work and commitment of all individuals who work in our business.
“This is a long running case that relates to matters arising a number of years ago. We accept that in this case we got some things wrong, and we apologise for that. We continue to appeal against the size of the award and how it has been calculated, while seeking to make an interim payment to Ms Jhuti. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage.”
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