A former council employee who was dismissed after taking sick leave for post-traumatic stress disorder following the Grenfell Tower fire has been awarded a potentially record-breaking £4.6 million in compensation for disability discrimination and harassment.
Rachael Wright-Turner was sacked from her role as director of public service reform at the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in 2018. In 2021, an employment tribunal found she had suffered disability discrimination. The tribunal has now awarded £4.58m in compensation, one of the highest – and possibly the highest ever – awards in damages.
Wright-Turner had previously worked as humanitarian assistance lead officer at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and had been involved in supporting residents affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy in June 2017, which killed 72 people.
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Wright-Turner was diagnosed with PTSD in October 2017, shortly before taking up a new role at Hammersmith & Fulham. She made the council aware of her diagnosis and said she was having counselling. The claimant had also been diagnosed with ADHD.
On her first day at the organisation, her line manager discussed a harrowing YouTube video of the fire and her own experience of being evacuated from her home at night by the fire service. The claimant became distressed.
Concerns about her performance were raised in a meeting on 2 May 2018. She was also accused by former chief executive Kim Smith née Dero of not disclosing her ADHD in the recruitment process.
Later that day the claimant was invited by colleagues to a local pub. She told them she was struggling with her mental health, referred to difficulties in her marriage, and raised concerns about the potential repercussions of taking sick leave before she completed her probation.
She became upset and a colleague accompanied her to the toilet. She became incoherent, was hyperventilating and refused to leave the toilet cubicle. Colleagues were concerned for her welfare and decided to take her to A&E, where she was assessed as being depressed, suicidal and traumatised, but not intoxicated following the pub visit.
Interim HR director Mark Grimley, who was among those at the pub with Wright-Turner, later reported that she had “had a lot to drink” and wanted to be sectioned.
She was signed off work for one month by her GP, which was later extended. Her probation period was also extended.
An investigation into the incident was carried out by the council and Grimley was interviewed. The tribunal found that he had given “mistaken and misleading” evidence about the claimant’s alcohol consumption that night.
Wright-Turner was dismissed from the council in August 2018, in a letter that said it felt she would not be able to complete her probationary period satisfactorily.
Smith was found to have deliberately misled the employment tribunal when she said she had told the claimant on the day of the pub visit that her probation period would be extended. In fact, this decision was taken a day later, when it appeared Wright-Turner would be taking time off for her mental health.
The tribunal also concluded that Grimley and Smith had conspired to doctor her dismissal letter so it appeared to have been signed off before Wright-Turner launched a grievance process. Their evidence to the tribunal “sought to rely on facts which they knew to be untrue”.
Wright-Turner said she had “lost nearly everything” because of the way she had been treated by the council.
“Despite the size of the award, I don’t know that I can ever recover. But I am pleased that after six years of litigation, during which they fought me every step of the way, Hammersmith & Fulham has finally been held to account,” she said.
“The actions of the LBHF leadership are now plain for all to see. I hope that there will be a proper inquiry into what has been a scandalous misuse of public money – in the damages that have been awarded, but also in the costs incurred by six years of litigation, in which Hammersmith & Fulham engaged one of the most expensive law firms in London.
“Those who discriminated against me have had their actions drawn into the light, but those who forced this case to go the distance and who have spent all this public money have not had any scrutiny at all. I hope that this scrutiny will now follow.”
Peter Daly, partner at Doyle Clayton, which acted for Wright-Turner, said: “This is one of the largest awards ever made by an employment tribunal. It reflects both the scale of what Rachael has suffered and the seriousness of the unlawful conduct by her former employer.
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“The award of exemplary damages is particularly noteworthy and it is indicative that Hammersmith & Fulham’s conduct fell egregiously below any acceptable standard for a public authority.
“Rachael was an extremely senior and successful public servant, on a career path that had every chance of taking her to the very top of her profession. That possibility was denied her by the unlawful actions of Hammersmith & Fulham, which were catastrophic for Rachael personally as well as professionally.
“While the size of the award is eye-catching, it highlights the scale of what Rachael has suffered. We are pleased to have been able to secure this for her, but, in Rachael’s own words, “I’d rather none of this had ever happened and I had just been allowed to do a job that I loved. I would give back every penny if it meant I could work again.”
A spokesman for the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham said: “We are very sorry for the ordeal suffered by Ms Wright-Turner, who joined Hammersmith & Fulham council in the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy in 2017.
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“However, we have always considered Ms Wright-Turner’s claim for compensation to be vastly excessive, disputed and highly unprecedented. While we are grateful to the tribunal panel for dismissing many of the exceptional claims that her lawyers have made, we still believe this award is excessive and will be looking to appeal.”
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