Rachael Wright-Turner won the compensation after findings of disability discrimination and harassment against London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (Picture: Getty)
A former council chief has won a record £4.6 million payout after suing her bosses for disability discrimination and harassment.
An employment tribunal ordered the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham to pay the amount in compensation and damages to Rachael Wright-Turner, 52, formerly a director of public service reform with the council.
She had been dismissed from her role in 2018 after taking sickness leave due to post-traumatic stress disorder, which she had developed while working at Kensington and Chelsea council in support of those affected by the tragedy at Grenfell Tower.
The disaster saw 72 people killed in a blaze that engulfed the 24-storey block of flats in June 2017.
The payout to Ms Wright-Turner is believed to be the largest ever award granted against a public body.
However, the former council chief said she had never wanted to take the matter to a tribunal, and that the six-year legal battle has had a significant negative effect on her family and her mental health.
Ms Wright-Turner had been suffering from PTSD and adapting to a recent ADHD diagnosis when she was let go by London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
Speaking with The Mail on Sunday, Ms Wright-Turner said: ‘This case has cost us everything, Before this started, I was married with two children in private school.
‘Now my marriage has collapsed, I’m fighting to stop my house from being repossessed and my children have been left devastated after being forced to leave their schools.
‘My income has been taken away – we have been living literally on the breadline, taking donations from food banks and charities.’
Ms Wright-Turner was initially signed off work in May 2018 after a meeting with colleagues at a local pub triggered her PTSD, causing her to have a panic attack that necessitated a trip to the hospital.
Not long after, senior officers with Hammersmith and Fulham said she had been drunk before attending the hospital.
More than 70 people were killed in the 2019 blaze at Grenfell Tower (Picture: Getty Images)
At around the same time, Ms Wright-Turner had been diagnosed with ADHD, to which the council’s former chief executive Kim Smith responded by saying her brain ‘doesn’t work like other people’s.’
She was subsequently dismissed from her £125,000-a-year role without being given the opportunity to discuss or challenge the decision.
In her recent interview, she said: ‘I don’t think they understood how closely I’d been working with the families in the aftermath of Grenfell.
‘They treated my PTSD as if I was acting like some sort of drama queen.’
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Ms Wright-Turner added she was conscious that the cost of the payout will be met by the taxpayer, at a rate of roughly £25 per resident, but insists she was left with no choice but to clear her name.
She said: ‘’From the public’s point of view this award will seem a huge amount, but I would give every penny of this award back for it not to have happened – I thought I would just leave with a redundancy payment, but they wanted me to leave without a penny.’
The council has said it was ‘very sorry’ for her experiences but that it will appeal the decision on the basis it feels her claim to have been ‘vastly excessive, disputed and highly unprecedented.’
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