£4.3 million disability discrimination award against Nat West / RBS

An Employment Tribunal has ordered Nat West / RBS to pay compensation of £4.7 million to an employee who suffered disability discrimination at the bank.

AB worked for RBS from 2008 until her resignation in May 2014, originally employed as a Customer Services Officer and from October 2011 as a Customer Services Officer transferring to the bank’s Stratford branch.

In 2008, on her way to work on the day due to be her first day of employment, AB was knocked down by a car. She suffered significant injuries, including a broken leg, damage to her knee ligaments, and nerve damage. Her left leg was in a brace, her left foot in a splint, and she needed to use crutches. Throughout her employment she continued to wear the foot splint and walked with a slight limp. These injuries continued to cause AB pain throughout the period of her employment, and that this pain affected her ability to work and to be at work.

Several discriminatory remarks were made and she was denied a further transfer request with reference to her limp.  As a result she suffered serious psychiatric injury as a result of the unlawful discrimination which prevented her from working for the foreseeable future and which required round the clock care.

Evidence from a psychiatrist was accepted that she showed”severe signs and symptoms of multiple psychiatric disorders, namely severe depression, anxiety and conversion disorders as well as psychosis” such that she was unlikely to be able to work again.

This joins a list of other very high awards but, particular to its own facts, this latest award is remarkable and sobering.

For those with a technical interest, the report of the appeal against this award is here.