London insurance firm fined £1 million over bullying, sexual harassment and heavy drinking

cnbc.com:

LONDON — Lloyd's of London, the U.K. insurance giant, has hit one of its member firms with a record £1.05 million ($1.38 million) fine for misconduct, which included allowing an annual inappropriate «boy's night out» for a number of years.

Lloyd's said in a notice of censure, published Wednesday, that its syndicate member firm Atrium Underwriters had accepted three charges of «detrimental conduct.»

One of the charges was for «sanctioning and tolerating over a period of a number of years up until 2018 an annual 'Boys' Night Out' during which some male members of staff, (including two senior executives in leadership roles) engaged in unprofessional and inappropriate conduct.»

This included «initiation games, heavy drinking and making inappropriate and sexualised comments about female colleagues.»

Lloyd's also charged Atrium because it failed to notify the insurer about the facts relating to the misconduct of one of its members of staff, referred to in the document as «Employee A.»

In addition, the notice stated that Employee A's conduct was well known with Atrium, «but no adequate steps were taken to deal with it.»

«Employee A's behaviour included a systematic campaign of bullying against a junior employee over a number of years,» Lloyd's said, adding that Atrium failed to protect the junior member of staff once it became aware of the bullying.

Lloyd's said that Atrium failed to acknowledge or challenge Employee A's behavior, «motivated in part by the desire of senior managers to protect Atrium from bad publicity.»

The employee who complained about Employee A was also instructed not to speak about Atrium's investigation into the misconduct or the allegations made.

The notice said that because Atrium had settled these