London, UK

An Indian-origin employee has been awarded more than £‎2.3 million ($2.9mn) after her bullying claim was upheld - a case believed to be one of the largest compensation settlements for the UK's Royal Mail. 

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Accusations were levelled against The Royal Mail of "destroying" the life of an employee named Kam Jhuti, who suffered lengthy bullying when she highlighted potential fraud done by her boss Mike Widmer, who even harassed the media specialist. 

The Daily Telegraph reported that the tribunal found that there had been a "catastrophic" impact on her because of the boss' treatment of her. 

In the eight-year-old case, an employment tribunal heard that Jhuti was fired and suffered severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. 

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An official remedy decision added to the long-running case this week read: "The tribunal makes a total award of GBP 2,365,614.13, payable by the respondent to the claimant." 

"Subject to the paragraph below, payment of the award is stayed pending the outcome of the respondent's (Royal Mail) appeal against the tribunal's original judgment on remedies which was sent to the parties on October 3, 2022. Both parties have the liberty to apply to lift this stay," it added. 

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"Of that total award, the respondent (Royal Mail) will, however, make payment of the sum of 250,000 pounds gross to the claimant; the stay does not, therefore, apply in relation to this sum. The parties agreed that the respondent will pay this sum to the claimant within 14 days of the date of this hearing," it further read. 

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What exactly happened? 

The case went as far as the Supreme Court and in a 2019 hearing, it was told that Jhuti started work at £‎50,000 ($64,000) per year as a media specialist at the Royal Mail's MarketReach unit based in London in September 2013. 

A month after getting the job, she suspected a colleague of violating corporate policy in order to get a bonus for herself while indirectly securing Widmer's. She told him, who stated that false claims would have an "impact" on her career. He then set up "intensive" weekly meetings just for her and repeatedly said her progress was disappointing. 

After that, Jhuti emailed HR, claiming that Widmer's actions were the result of her whistleblowing, but was assured that "he would be the one to be believed". 

She was absent from work in March 2014 due to work-related anxiety and depression, and she was fired in July of that year. 

(With inputs from agencies)

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