Blackberry executive wins £400,000 Employment Tribunal constructive dismissal claim

MoJA former Blackberry executive has won over £400,000 in the Employment Tribunal after it was found that he had been constructively dismissed and discriminated against during his employment.

Mr Glen Hill, a former global strategic accounts manager at Research in Motion – the owners of Blackberry – made his claims for constructive dismissal and disability discrimination after he suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of bullying and harassment at the firm.

Mr Hill said that he was insulted by other employees at Research In Motion before being subjected to long silences. There was a number of rows between managers at the firm and the final straw for Mr Hill came during a row over a discussion of weekly sales reports, with Mr Hill stating that he thought he was “cracking up” as a result of the pressure that he was put under. He subsequently resigned from his employment, claiming that Research In Motion’s conduct towards him had fundamentally breached his contract of employment.

The Employment Tribunal hearing took place in Reading over a period of seven days in July 2012, with the Employment Tribunal finding that Research In Motion’s actions were sufficient to justify findings that the firm had constructively dismissed Mr Hill and that he had been subjected to disability discrimination.

A “remedies hearing” was held in February 2014 to determine what compensation Mr Hill would receive as a result of the upholding of his claim. Mr Hill’s legal team was seeking £5.7 million in loss of earnings that he would have received had he stayed with the company until he was 70 but Employment Judge John Warren concluded that Mr Hill was in fact entitled to three years of his £88,000 annual salary plus a proportion of the annual bonuses that he would have received had he still been in employment, with a final figure of approximately £400,000 awarded to Mr Hill.