Employee wins $2.2m settlement from Nestlé over bullying case

Former manager said she felt discredited and degraded by company employees and had suffered psychological damage

JOHN REVILL

Nestle will pay a former manager $2.2m compensation after a Swiss court upheld her claim of bullying while working at the company, newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported.

Yasmine Motarjemi was awarded the compensation by a court in Vaud, southern Switzerland, the paper said on Saturday, after a 12-year legal battle.

The 67-year-old former head of global food safety had complained because she felt discredited and degraded by Nestlé employees for years and had suffered such psychological damage that she had to apply for an occupational disability pension when she was 55, the report said.

She launched her legal battle against Nestlé in 2011 after the company sacked her in 2010.

Her lawyer, Mathilde Bessonnet, said the payment showed the court had recognised Motarjemi’s claim that her career was destroyed and that her employer was fully responsible.

“Nestlé must pay my client the entire lost wage bill retrospectively, from the moment of termination until retirement,” Bessonnet told the paper.

Motarjemi was quoted as saying: “My lawsuit against Nestlé was never about money. I wanted a court to recognise the injustice done to me.”

The judgment is final with Nestlé deciding not to appeal. The company did not confirm the compensation amount.

“We sincerely regret the almost 12 years of litigation and wish to bring this legal matter to a final close,” a Nestlé spokesperson said.

Nestlé said it did not tolerate harassment and took such allegations seriously.