The heirs of a late HSBC employee have been awarded €603,000 by a court for unjust disciplinary action the bank had taken in breach of the worker’s rights.

Private clients’ manager Johanna Abela had been indefinitely suspended from the bank on March 1, 2004 and a letter of charge accusing her of gross misconduct was issued on April 8 of that same year.

She was found guilty by an internal disciplinary board and was downgraded as a result.

An internal appeals board confirmed the decision and changed the downgrading decision to a disciplinary transfer and a final warning.

In her application to the court, signed by lawyer Tonio Azzopardi, the late Ms Abela claimed that the procedures were fundamentally flawed and breached the principles of natural justice.

Among other things, she was not allowed to present witnesses or to cross-examine those who testified against her.

Moreover, an anonymous document was used as evidence against her.

Ms Abela claimed that neither the disciplinary not the appeals board were independent or impartial.

She asked the court to declare the investigation and the processes in breach of her rights, null and without effect and to find the bank responsible for damages.

The bank categorically denied the claims.

In her judgement, Madam Justice Jacqueline Padovani Grima concluded that a collective agreement did not prejudice a worker’s rights to proceed with a claim at an industrial tribunal or the courts.

She said the bank had not persuaded her that the procedures taken against Ms Abela were just and fair and not prejudged.

She noted that although Ms Abela suffered reactive depressive anxiety disorder likely to have been precipitated by the stress and trauma caused by problems she encountered as a result of her occupational situation, there was no scientific or medical evidence that this could have led to her developing cancer, which she died from in March 2013.

The court decided that, given that Ms Abela was no longer alive and able to defend herself in new procedures, it could not adhere to the bank’s request for the procedures to be re-initiated rather than be made to pay damages.

The sum to be awarded in damages, it said, covered the wage and commission with costs and interest Ms Abela would have earned before falling ill with cancer.