The cost of bullying

The News of the World faces a bill for over £1m  following a tribunal finding that there was ‘a culture of bullying’ against a senior reporter.

Matt Driscoll was dismissed in April 2007 while on  long-term sick leave for stress related depression after 10 years with the paper and two promotions.  He was subject to disciplinary proceedings which began with formal warnings back in November 2005, and the newspaper maintained that his dismissal was as a result of this process, due to his capability or qualifications to carry out his work. 

The Judgement referred to the Editor (Andy Coulson, who is now David Cameron’s Head of Communications) for bullying remarks in an email after the first warning, letting him know that Mr Coulson thought Driscoll should have been sacked.  The bullying continued after July 2006, when he went off sick, through emails, phone calls and visits to his home.  According to the tribunal this constituted a consistent pattern of bullying behaviour started by Mr Coulson but continued by other managers who took their lead from him or shared his views.