Former city lawyer Gill Switalski is seeking £19m in compensation having already been awarded a record £13.4 million by the courts.
Reported by The Times newspaper, Switalski claims she was left a mental and physical wreck after being forced out of her £140,000-a-year job as head of the legal team at F&C Asset Management in an 18-month campaign of bullying.
An employment tribunal has already ruled that Switalski was the victim of sex discrimination and harassment by senior management at F&C. It said she was treated less favourably than a male colleague with a special-needs child. Switalski has one young son with cerebral palsy, and another who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome.
Originally she was claiming £13.4 million for the psychiatric damage and loss of earnings, pension rights and career prospects but as the appeal began it was revealed that the claim is now worth nearly £19 million.
According to the newspaper, Switalski, who was referred to as a “whirling dervish” because of her great energy, now suffers from adjustment disorder, sleeps for most of the day and is unable to run any of her businesses or “even read a newspaper”.
Switalski’s claim centres on the behaviour of her boss, Marrack Tonkin, and failure of senior management to address her repeated complaints about his behaviour.
The defence say that the allegations that Tonkin questioned Switalski’s expenses and attendance and watched over her did not demonstrate that she was sexually discriminated against.
The hearing continues.
One Response
Sex Discrimination
“There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28. Do we discriminate against women, blacks, Hispanics, etc., etc.? Sad to say, this ancient truth is nowhere to be seen in the modern society arena. What a strange world that we still have issues regarding discrimination over sex. Like sexual harassment, the true victims rarely report it while the abused suffer in silence. This is a problem. Huge Problem. In my book, Wingtips with Spurs, I devote a chapter to pay discrimination and how it is often over-looked or swept into a dark corner. And yes, it still exists in modern societies. While we pour more stupid laws into the books to prevent such painful actions, we fail to fix the real problem, that is, the root. That problem is the pride and vainglory that has infected our society. In addition, we have been conditioned by lawyers to believe that legal and moral are the same thing. So sad. Whenever a human is treated differently than the masses, we should take a cold, hard look at the situation. A hard look indeed. Maybe even the mirror. Michael L. Gooch, SPHR http://www.michaellgooch.com