There has been discussion in the Guardian that a News of the World reporter who suffered from a culture of bullying led by former editor Andy Coulson, who is now David Cameron's head of communications, has been awarded almost £800,000 for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination.
The background is that Matt Driscoll, a sports reporter sacked in April 2007 while on long-term sick leave for stress-related depression an d was awarded £792,736 by the East London employment tribunal.
Beyond the political interest in the story and the fact that it involves a well known a media company, the discussion of alleged is bullying interested me.
What evidence is there of bullying?
The Guardian reports "The tribunal found that was merely a pretext and the real reason for the disciplinary proceedings was simply that Coulson wanted to "get shot" of him. In July 2006, Coulson wrote in an email to the deputy editor, Neil Wallis, that he wanted Driscoll "out as quickly and cheaply as possible".
The judgment singled out Coulson for making "bullying" remarks in an email to Driscoll after the first formal warning, letting him know that he thought he should have been sacked.
According to the tribunal, the bullying continued after Driscoll went on sick leave. Senior management at the paper sent Driscoll a barrage of emails, phone calls and visited his home to demand that he see a company doctor, despite Driscoll's GP advising him to "distance" himself from the source of his stress. "
Therefore we have an email from Coulson, emails, phone calls and visits to the victim's homes. These are overt signs of bullying.
What we do not know are the more subtle forms of bullying, those which are more more difficult to read and in a way more dangerous as they are relentless and more difficult to oppose. These subtle signs include manipulatiuon of holiday schdules and expenses, the decision to deliberatetely ignore someone in a meeting and the setting up of targets designed ti make that indiviual fail.
I am not saying that these subtle signs happened in this case but the failure to report to subtle signs of bullying does northing to change the lack of knowledge upon the subject. More on bullying, please read here.
Justin Patten, Solicitor