‘Belittling and stressful’ | Legal expert weighs in on 'pandemic bonus email'

Recently, it was claimed that West Midlands Trains emailed around 2,500 staff members with a memo stating that the firm’s Managing Director, Julian Edwards, wanted to thank them for their hard work throughout the pandemic year. It shared that as a thank you for their efforts, they would get a one-off payment after “huge strain was placed upon a large number of our workforce”.

While many employees will likely feel grateful, happy and excited upon receiving such an email, it was short-lived as when staff clicked through to read the thank you note they were reportedly met with a second email explaining that it was a “phishing simulation test” and that there would be no bonus.