UBS France bullied a former worker who said she had refused to destroy documents that might have been of interest to tax evasion investigators, a Paris labour tribunal ruled on Thursday, reports Reuters.
The Swiss bank denied any bullying of the ex-employee, Stéphanie Gibaud, and said the dispute between Gibaud and her boss was a simple misunderstanding.
The labour tribunal, which has no connection to ongoing investigations into UBS over whether it helped tax dodgers, said however that the "alleged psychological bullying has been established".
It ordered the bank to pay damages and interest of 30,000 euros (21,680 pounds) to Gibaud.
Gibaud, who helped organise events for wealthy clients as a marketing employee at the Swiss bank's French arm, had accused her boss of bullying before she was sacked in January 2012.
She said the harassment increased after July 2008 when she refused a request to destroy client files and documents that she said could be useful to a tax evasion probe.
"Gibaud went through a real hell by refusing to live under a law of silence that had been imposed on her," her lawyer William Bourdon told Reuters.
"It's true that the damages and interest are not adequate given her suffering, but French and European judges are beginning to recognise the unique and complex suffering that a whistleblower like Stéphanie Gibaud went through," he added.