A HIGH-FLYING City executive began an £11 million lawsuit against bank executives yesterday over claims that she became suicidal after suffering sex discrimination from a male boss.
Claire Bright, one of the most senior women at HBOS, was in charge of a balance sheet of £140 billion but said her boss, Cliff Pattenden, harassed and denigrated her constantly because he "could not manage a clever and successful woman".
It got s
o bad that Ms Bright, who won the Institute for Financial Research "Borrower of the Year" award, became increasingly distressed, suffered from heart palpitations and was afraid to come face to face with Mr Pattenden, the head of HBOS Treasury's front office.
She was suspended by HBOS - created out of the merger between the Bank of Scotland and Halifax in 2001 - for three months and then sacked on 6 October last year after making a complaint about Mr Pattenden's behaviour. He kept his job.
Yesterday, Ms Bright, who was paid a package worth £600,000 a year, began her claim for sex discrimination at Stratford employment tribunal.
Both parties met for a private "case management" hearing to decide preliminary issues. If the case reaches a full tribunal hearing it is not likely to take place until the autumn and could last several weeks.
Ms Bright began working for the company in October 2004 as head of asset and liability management, reporting to Mr Pattenden as head of a team of 60 staff.
Her case to the tribunal states: "From the start of her employment she was disrespected, demeaned, overruled, micro-managed and humiliated by Mr Pattenden."
It added: "The claimant has become increasingly distressed, very tearful, unable to sleep, lost her appetite, had pins and needles in her arms and fingers, heart palpitations, became fearful for her future and fearful to return to work to face [Mr Pattenden], and began to have suicidal ideation."
His style of management directed at her alone was "boorish and undermining". He displayed an "egotistical and mercurial character" and he gave her little encouragement - unlike his treatment of male colleagues, it was claimed.
On a training day last year, he dismissed her presentation on "opportunities for the business going forward" as "making absolutely no sense whatsoever".
Morgan Alexander, a management consultancy that conducted a staff survey, concluded that Lindsay MacKay, chief executive of HBOS Treasury Services, was easily led by Mr Pattenden, who was heavily criticised. The overall assessment was "not a huge amount of blame culture and bullying except from Cliff, who is the dissonant one here".
Comments about Mr Pattenden's leadership skills included: "Cliff has a challenging style", "we should consider sending Cliff to charm school" and "really difficult to work with". His reaction was the comments were both positive and negative, and "so what". He said: "I did not think I needed to change the way I work and deal with people as a result of this feedback."
Ms Bright claims that the bank's "response to a male who is abrasive, rude and confrontational is to accept these features as positive and do nothing about them. In a female, they are seen as wholly negative and the senior male executives respond by 'smoothing things over'."
An HBOS spokesman said yesterday: "Claire Bright has filed a claim with the tribunal and we will vigorously defend this case if it comes to the tribunal.
"We have a rigorous and comprehensive grievance procedure at HBOS. Claire Bright's allegations went through that procedure and her allegations were proved to be unfounded."
The full article contains 616 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
