£25K compensation for being sent a birthday card? We’re living in strange times
The lack of resilience displayed by some people risks turning the country into a place where no one is prepared to do the difficult things – like defending it
Even on a bright sunny day, the Otterburn military range is a bleak, inhospitable spot. Britain’s biggest military training range covers 90 square miles of empty moorland high in the Northumbrian hills. It’s not a place for the fainthearted.
Captain Philip Gilbert Muldowney was far from that. He died last weekend during night-time live-fire training on its ranges, amidst the dark, the rain and the cold. He was described as a “rising star” and “an absolute credit to his family and friends”.
His death is the subject of a detailed investigation but it’s also a reminder to the rest of us of the bravery required and danger faced by those who step forward to fight for our country.
We live in strange times. While Captain Muldowney was marching out on a freezing January night to train using live ammunition, a former police officer was preparing to sue Scotland Yard for £1 million because she’d developed a phobia of police stations.
‘Human right to be respected’
Kirstie Coy-Martin had been working from home due to stress but claims she suffered panic attacks after being told to attend a police station. The Metropolitan Police say they will strongly dispute the case.
Events freelancer Sophie Stone was also in court this week, suing an employer who dismissed her request for a quiet “breakout area” at a work party. Stone is neuro-divergent and asked for the space because she feared becoming overwhelmed. She told the tribunal: “I feel that my human right to be respected has been violated.”
Where are all these cases coming from? Hardly a week goes by without some bizarre claim for compensation. The worst thing is, some of them are even successful.
An HMRC customer service advisor took them to an industrial tribunal after getting a birthday card from colleagues when she was on sick leave for work-related stress. She had “clearly explained” she wanted correspondence to be kept to a minimum. The tribunal ruled this amounted to harassment relating to a disability and awarded her £25,000 – of taxpayers’ money.
Business as usual?
As a society we seem less able to cope with the mundane and ordinary, never mind the big challenges in life. If spurious claims in employment tribunals perplex us, how must they seem to a generation who survived the Blitz or fought in war? And do they actually change anything?
I suspect the answer is no. The worker gets a payout, the lawyers take their cut and everyone goes back to business as usual. But not quite. When it comes to recruitment, perhaps employers will be a bit more rigorous, less willing to take a chance, from now on.
Much of the blame for our litigious age must be placed with those who litigate. The internet is awash with ambulance-chasing ‘employment specialist’ solicitors, many of them happy to work on a no-win, no-fee basis to attract business.
They may have got into law to help put the bad guys behind bars but did they really think they’d end up celebrating a win for someone who felt harassed by a birthday card?
Resilience starts in childhood and needs to be inculcated by parents and teachers and reinforced by society. Otherwise we will end up in a world where no one is prepared to do the difficult things. That really is something to be frightened about.
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