Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this is way too much compensation

76 replies

xyfactor · 16/12/2011 17:13

How can this amount be justified?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-16224062

OP posts:
HecateGoddessOfTwelfthNight · 16/12/2011 17:16

Seems a hell of a lot.

I would be interested to know how they worked that out.

lost earnings, injury to feelings or whatever the proper term is, etc etc

plus it depends exactly what they did to her and for how long.

It's really difficult to say based on the little information given. They may well have driven her to the edge of a nervous breakdown over several years, in which case I'm sure she feels that amount is justified.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 16/12/2011 17:17

Blimey. That is a huge amount of money, but I suspect it's also intended as a deterrent, not just compensation to the woman?

Would that include what she had to pay for the trial? I am very ignorant about legal stuff but I'd like to know.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 16/12/2011 17:20

I have to say ... I know doctors train hard and do an incredibly important job, but I am not sure how I feel about the fact she got this huge settlement and I wonder if women who maybe have less chance of ever earning as much are more scared to speak up/less able to afford to take legal action. I'd hope this would also indirectly help them by raising awareness, but I just don't know.

rubyslippers · 16/12/2011 17:20

I read this

I think it is very high but I have no idea what a sensible amount would be for essentially ruing her career and driving her to a nervous breakdown

I really don't know TBH

Kayano · 16/12/2011 17:21

I think what is shocking is they way they treated her!!! Sickening

AliBellandthe40jingles · 16/12/2011 17:24

Loss of earnings plus loss of pension accruals will be a lot of that, and then the compensation for the actual bullying etc.

ImperialBlether · 16/12/2011 17:26

It's awful to think of this poor woman training for so many years, deciding to have a baby, as she had every right to do and then suffering such awful treatment for so many years.

It's a hell of a lot of money and makes me think it was a punishment against them.

I'm sure she would much, much rather have had her job and a happy life for the last ten years.

Original poster
xyfactor · 16/12/2011 17:26

This poor woman didn't get even a sniff at proper compensation.
It's one rule for the rich and one for the poor.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-12345393

OP posts:
LRDtheFeministDragon · 16/12/2011 17:26

Well said kayano!

HecateGoddessOfTwelfthNight · 16/12/2011 17:41

That's bloody disgusting, xyfactor. She should have got more than that.

I don't know about compensation in cases like this, but I do have experience of personal injury compensation.

My son was injured at birth by the doctor who delivered him (she was negligent and incompetent). This doctor left my son with a life long disability (erbs palsy)

We fought for compensation for him. It was worked out by deciding what his likely future earnings would have been and how that may be affected, plus the costs of his disability - adaptations, physio, ot, etc etc. plus some for what he went through.

So I know that it is all based on calculations. So, what you do for a living, how much you earn, how much you could earn, how much you stand to lose, does make a difference and does mean that a highly paid professional stands to get more money than someone in a minimum wage job.

HecateGoddessOfTwelfthNight · 16/12/2011 17:43

oh, and the dinner lady was sacked after one incident. Unfairly sacked, unfairly treated. But she was not subject to a sustained campaign of lies and intimidation, racist and sexist treatment.

So that's another difference.

Original poster
xyfactor · 16/12/2011 17:44

4 and a half million quid is too much.
But thanks for devaluing the dinner lady i'm sure she's feel supported.

OP posts:
HappyCamel · 16/12/2011 17:46

YANBU, it's the taxpayer, ie us who will pay. If it comes out of existing budgets then it's the patients who pay. But it won't be the perpotrators.

It was a disgusting way to treat someone but I fail to see how 4.5 million will make her feel better than, say 2.5 million. It's all a massive multiple of her salary too.

Soldiers who are physically wounded fighting for their country get far, far less.

flyingspaghettimonster · 16/12/2011 17:47

Seems fair to me - it says she cannot ever return to the medical profedssion - that isn't just a case of changing hospitals, they have essentially ruined her life. Imagine the stress of being accused of all sorts of horrible things by people just desperate to get rid of you from the workplace...

Original poster
xyfactor · 16/12/2011 17:47

Exactly happycamel.

High flying professionals deserve more money according to some people.

I find that mindset disgusting.

OP posts:
HecateGoddessOfTwelfthNight · 16/12/2011 17:49

I am in no way devaluing her. I am attempting to explain how the courts, the lawyers, the system, arrives at a figure. The wages of the person, the lost earnings of a person, the situation - racism, sexism, a long campaign v a single incident - all these things are considered.

Since I am not in control of that process, it is not me who is devaluing anybody. I am simply telling you how it works, based on my experience of my son's case.

How do you arrive at the conclusion that because I am able to explain how these things are worked out, that I am devaluing anyone?

Original poster
xyfactor · 16/12/2011 17:50

You don't believe soldiers lives are ruined flyingspaghettimonster ?
Should everyone who had been through this get 4.4 million quid?
Justice would have had more effect if the working class victim would have received the amount.

OP posts:
AliBellandthe40jingles · 16/12/2011 17:55

You cannot compare her case to the dinner lady, not at all. She was in breach of the terms of her employment, but despite that she was awarded compensation because her employer handled her dismissal badly.

That cannot be compared to this poor woman who has been subject to bullying, racial insults and had her whole career brought to a halt when she had done nothing wrong, merely had the temerity to have a baby.

Every working mother, or working woman who hopes to be a mother ought to be hugely pleased at this ruling. The court have taken the case very, very seriously.

Original poster
xyfactor · 16/12/2011 17:55

You're second post more than hints at how "Deserving" the dinner lady was as opposed to the doctor HecateGoddessOfTwelfthNight' with you quoting her sacking etc.

I for one am sick of the well off bleeding the pot dry.

OP posts:
Original poster
xyfactor · 16/12/2011 17:57

AliBellandthe40jingles the dinner lasy wasn't a working mother ?
Perhaps she doesn't fall into the middle class bracket to warrant sympathy then Confused

OP posts:
AliBellandthe40jingles · 16/12/2011 17:58

xyfactor - this is not a class issue.

AliBellandthe40jingles · 16/12/2011 18:00

I didn't say that at all, don't twist my words.

She was in breach of her contract. Her dismissal had nothing to do with maternity leave or anything remotely connected with it.

HecateGoddessOfTwelfthNight · 16/12/2011 18:00

does it? how so?

I said she was unfairly treated, unfairly sacked. But the cases are different. Do you disagree with this? Was the dinner lady subject to a sustained racist and sexist attack? Hounded out of her job over months and months?

No. She was sacked in an unlawful manner after one incident. Her employers did not follow correct procedure.

My post 'hints' at nothing. You may be reading much into it, but I can't help that. I mean exactly what I say in it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Original poster
xyfactor · 16/12/2011 18:00

AliBellandthe40jingles it certainly is.
If you can fish out one case of a working class person getting this amount of compensation i'll eat my hat.
The dinner lady and millions like her in "Menial" low paid work are not afforded the same protection as this doctor.
Even if she was unfairly treated she wasn't unfairly treated to that monetary extent.

OP posts:
OldMotherDismass · 16/12/2011 18:02

Actually I'm not sure it is too much. She is unlikely to be able to work again, at 53 years old. That means she has lost 10 or more working years of her life. She was a hospital consultant. The average salary of a medical consultant is upwards of £110,000. This means that even without taking into account salary increases, if she would have worked another 10 years, she would have £1.1 million in lost earnings. She may have been planning to work longer than that and she certainly would have expected salary increases in that time. She will also have lost pension and then she should be compensated for damage to mental health, professional reputation etc etc etc. It all adds up.