ON MANY OCCASIONS over the last 100 years, history has been made by individuals who took on the might of major corporations in the pursuit of justice.
This scenario is most apparent when you review the history of litigation against cigarette companies. In 1988, a tobacco company was ordered to pay damages for the first time in the United States. A federal jury in Newark, New Jersey, ordered Liggett Group, Inc, to pay $400,000 to the family of Rose Cipollone, a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer in 1984.
Historical, litigation precedents have been born in the United States. However, one could start to believe that little old Ireland could be the next country to join the elite club – but for all the wrong reasons. It started with a gut feeling but has now become more than that. The reason – Shepherd’s Pie, my personal story of dealing with recession, and the effect on me and my family while trying to discover the road to recession. The story also communicates very clearly my experiences in dealing with Irish banks.
At least 25 readers of my book made contact directly with me to tell their stories. The phone call normally starts with a warm congratulations – followed by a comment that normally says “my story is very similar”, followed by my asking: “Which bank is it?” I hear sobbing on the line followed by an uncomfortable silence. I say: “Which bank is it and tell me what the they are doing to you.”
The consistent message is that all callers are at breaking point, mentally exhausted, stretched to the point that normal life has been parked. Many businesses, having survived the last three years, now find themselves at the mercy of banks as the business owner fights to stop the withdrawal of overdrafts, a receiver or in some cases to stop a challenge against the most sacred asset held, the family home.
Given the many SOS calls to my office, and having suffered at the hands of the banks myself, I now find myself asking the question: Is it not now just a matter of time before the family of a suicide victim mounts a legal challenge against a bank for causing the death of a family member?
The attack from banks in most cases has been aggressive, brutal and strong enough to challenge the mental health of the strongest
Outrageous as it might seem I truly believe that this country is fast approaching a point where real damage will be caused to communities and families all over the country unless banks change tactics or at the very least train their key staff in mental health awareness. Furthermore one could also argue that it is only a matter of time before a bank finds itself defending its position from a staff member who mounts a legal case for damage to their own mental health as a result of being placed in an environment that they are not trained to cope with.
How could any person acting in the best interests of a bank or following specific instructions of that bank be asked to rationalise the suicide of a customer that they were having to apply pressure on? Such a command goes well beyond the right of any employer. To assume that such fragility doesn’t exist within the customer base of any bank in this country is simply naive. The attack from banks in most cases has been aggressive, brutal and strong enough to challenge the mental health of the strongest however given acute recession fatigue (experienced by many SMEs) most find that their mental health is already compromised.
Both customers and bank officials need to be protected as a matter of urgency. My calls on this subject have not fallen on deaf ears. The Samaritans have backed my call to help train bank officials while Aware agreed that it would be more beneficial for banks, clients and debt collection agencies to work together.
However, it was a cry for help from within one pillar bank the rattled me the most.
At the end of a recent bank meeting I found myself being ushered to a corner where a senior official suggested that my experience in dealing with the bank could and should be put to good use whereby I might be able to improve the communication between the client and and the bank. The same official shared with me the real fear within the corridors of this particular bank suggesting that not only were they acutely aware of the risks but that there was a real desire to address these. Perhaps a sniff of progress? Perhaps a sign of change?
Clearly at least one bank is willing therefore we must take that olive branch and use it now to entice all parties to the table. Such a dramatic but positive move would send a message to the four corners of this island that there is hope and that as a society we are starting to learn from our mistakes. Failure to heed the signals, failure to listen to the cries for help from both sides will cause further loss of life in this country. As a society we recognise the dramatic increase in suicide in the last 4 years. We discuss and analyse daily however we fail to act.
Failing to act now, turning our back and walking away is no better than walking away from a river bank to the screams and cries of neighbour being swept away by an angry river. The question we must ask now is can we live with that?
The Samaritans are on 1850 60 90 90 24 hours a day
The Aware helpline is 1890 303 302
George Mordaunt is the author of Shepherd’s Pie: Family Business, Recession and Recovery – The Real Story, published by Mercier Press, €16.99 in bookshops nationwide. The book was sparked by an address he made to politicians and Irish company chiefs at a Chamber of Commerce conference in 2010 on how bust businesses can lift themselves out of the mire and recover. The ‘Shepherd’s Pie’ moment refers to the point at which Mordaunt could no longer put food on his family table and which prompted him to stand up the banks and use innovation to work his way out of the trouble his business was in. He is Managing Director of the Mordaunt Group, a family business based in Clonmel, Co Tipperary and an advocate for SMEs.
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