Taxpayers are facing a compensation bill of nearly £30,000 after a tribunal ruled yesterday that two former senior civil servants, one of whom was later suspended amid allegations of bullying, fabricated evidence in the case of an executive who quit over the way they handled her grievance.
The Scottish Government has been ordered to pay the compensation to Leanne Gardner who went off sick with work-related stress after only 42 days in a new job. She was responsible for supervising staff handling planning appeals at the Inquiries Reporters Unit in Falkirk.
She never returned and eventually resigned over the handling of her complaints.
A Glasgow employment tribunal said that correspondence had been fabricated by Susan Beevers, then head of human resources, and Sally Carruthers, director of change in corporate services, who had pretended she had reviewed Ms Beevers' actions.
These matters amounted to a breach of contract, entitling Ms Gardner to resign and consider herself to be constructively and unfairly dismissed.
Ms Beevers was the controversial private sector high flyer, who was suspended pending disciplinary proceedings in 2006 amid allegations of bullying. She subsequently resigned.
Ms Beevers was the executive in charge of a disastrous £8.5m computerisation project.
Ms Gardner transferred from the Department of Work and Pensions in Glasgow to supervise staff handling planning appeals at the Inquiries Reporter's Unit.
She started in March 2004, but soon went off sick suffering work-related stress, and never returned. She had raised concerns about lack of training. She had expected her five staff would be experienced, but this was not the case.
While she was off, she discovered she was pregnant and sought a redundancy package. But she ended up complaining to Ms Carruthers about Ms Beevers's handling of the matter, then complaining about Ms Carruthers.
She said Ms Beevers told her she had completed a full investigation, but she received no further correspondence.
When she complained to Ms Carruthers she saw a letter from Ms Beevers stating: "I have already explained in detail that I have reviewed your case and I have seen extensive evidence that you received training and support."
Ms Carruthers advised Ms Gardner she was satisfied her case was fully reviewed by Ms Beevers. The tribunal heard Ms Beevers had been suspended and subsequently resigned.
The tribunal concluded there was no investigation review by Ms Beevers and Ms Carruthers had not reviewed Ms Beevers's actions in response to the grievance.
Ms Gardner submitted a formal grievance and requested a copy of the investigation review by Ms Beevers. She was again advised the matter was properly dealt with.
Ms Gardner resigned in January 2006 after 16 years' service.
The tribunal concluded Ms Gardner's complaint about lack of training formed the basis of a valid grievance.
The executive did not deny correspondence had been fabricated.
The tribunal stated the actions of Ms Beevers in fabricating correspondence and that of Ms Carruthers in pretending she had reviewed Ms Beevers's actions entitled Ms Gardner to resign.
Employment judge Jane Porter ordered Scottish Ministers to pay Ms Gardner £28,959.
Ms Beevers was appointed to her Scottish Executive post despite having been sacked for bullying from a previous job.
But senior officials at the executive were not aware of that when she was given the job in Edinburgh, with ultimate responsibility for personnel matters for the executive's 4500 civil servants.
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