Stockbroker quit after top firm ignored bullying, tribunal hears
Former Goodbody Stockbrokers investment manager John Looby, 36, claimed the behaviour of Michael O’Sullivan frightened him at times and his bosses never tried to resolve the issue. Mr Looby, who was earning €124,000 a year, said he was forced to resign last October and hasn’t worked since due to medical problems.
Goodbody’s, which is owned by AIB and is Ireland’s oldest brokers, is contesting the action at the Employment Appeals Tribunal. It claims Mr Looby resigned of his own free will and refused another position created for him at the firm. Mr Looby gave evidence yesterday that he and Mr O’Sullivan met through work in 1987 and later played rugby, socialised and holidayed together. However, their relationship ran into trouble when he and Mr O’Sullivan were hired by Goodbody’s to run its elite high-risk hedge fund management project in August 2003. Mr Looby was given an annual salary of €124,000 and guaranteed a €50,000 bonus a year later. But he told today’s Employment Appeals Tribunal: “From seven in the morning through to the evening, I was faced with a spectrum of behaviour [from Mr O’Sullivan] that ranged from a cutting silence right across to explosive aggression.”
