The High Court awarded €90,000 to Margaret Kelly after finding that her employer, Bon Secours Health System Limited, was liable for a workplace back injury and for certain acts of bullying, harassment and discrimination during her employment at its Tralee hospital.
In a judgment delivered on 26 January 2012, Mr Justice Cross found the hospital negligent and in breach of statutory duty for failing to provide Kelly with mandatory manual-handling training. He accepted that she injured her back while lifting and turning medical files and found no contributory negligence. The judge awarded €30,000 for the back injury, including a modest allowance for its effect on her work options.
Kelly also claimed that she had been bullied and harassed at work. The judge said there was no separate tort of bullying and harassment, but assessed the claim through the employer’s duties and the pleaded claims, including negligence and breach of contract. He upheld some allegations and rejected others.
The court found that management’s handling of an internal permanent-post recruitment process, which allowed external candidates to be appointed despite the procedure the judge said should have applied, amounted to corporate bullying, harassment and discrimination and caused Kelly stress. It also found that her suspension and removal from the hospital after she declined to sign a statement she considered inaccurate was wrongful and amounted to breach of contract and bullying and harassment. The judge said management treated her differently because she had raised a grievance and refused to sign.
The court also found that a management email to an outside investigator, sent while an investigation into Kelly’s bullying complaint was being arranged, was intended to prejudice her and contributed to her stress. However, the judge did not accept that all of her workplace complaints were established. He rejected, among other claims, that management orchestrated complaints made against her by colleagues, that a manager used threatening gestures during a meeting, or that she was physically restrained from leaving the hospital.
The judge accepted that other bereavements and health factors contributed to Kelly’s condition. He found her acute depressive symptoms were not related to the workplace bullying, while other symptoms were. He concluded that the relationship with the hospital had irretrievably broken down and that she was unlikely to return to work. He awarded €60,000 in past and future general damages for distress and insult connected with the wrongs he found.
The court ordered a decree for €90,000, with Kelly entitled on the face of the judgment to her expenses and outlay.