With the support of UNISON, in 2010, former NHS manager Nanette Bowen won her claim and was awarded £150,000 compensation for workplace bullying over a three year period at the Princess of Wales hospital, after it led to a nervous breakdown. She had worked there for 28 years, but from 2000, she began to suffer sexual harassment and aggression from a male manager.

Over the next three years, her responsibility for hiring staff was removed, she was not allowed to pass on information to staff without his consent and she had to fill in a daily form for him to monitor her work. The harassment caused her stress and panic attacks including, on one occasion, being rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack.

Dave Galligan, UNISON’s head of health in Wales, described the case as a “warning to employers that they need to listen to their employees concerns and act sooner rather than later, or face the consequences”.