Former bank worker loses £600,000 unfair dismissal case

Former HBOS executive, Haley Tansey, has lost her case for unfair dismissal against Halifax Bank of Scotland for £600,000, reports the Halifax Evening Courier.

She had alleged she was forced to quit her job after suffering from 'stress' caused by unwanted advances during business trips, comments about her figure and the sexist culture of her fellow bankers.

But a Leeds Employment Tribunal, which had retired to study the evidence, has now ruled the claimant terminated her contract of employment by way of resignation.

During the case Mrs Tansey, who worked at HBOS from 1990 to 2007, claimed one manager stripped naked in her hotel room to watch her sleep; another man said he liked it when she leant over the desk because he always got a 'good eyeful', while men in one office were said to have watched pornography on their laptops at night during working hours.

HBOS vigorously defended the action and brought witnesses in who denied a sexist culture existed in the workplace. The Tribunal decided there was no evidence HBOS committed any serious breach of the claimant's contract of employment.

"The claimaint raised a grievance about various work-related matters. The respondent investigated," it said, and HBOS was ruled to have acted reasonably.

Writing in Workplace Law Magazine earlier this year, Darren Sherborne, Head of Employment at Rickerbys said:

“Despite the behaviour that is alleged, a company may still protect itself from claims if it takes steps to prevent treatment of the sort that is alleged and to protect employees. To this end, most employers now have harassment policies, if not discrimination policies in place.”