A PR stunt awarding companies for being female-friendly employers and run by The Times newspaper has been brought into disrepute by the awarding of compensation by a tribunal against its organiser, for bullying employees.

Glenda Stone, who is also the co-chairman of Gordon Brown’s Women’s Enterprise Task Force, for what it’s worth, founded and runs the Where Women Want to Work Top 50 awards, promoted every October by The Times. The tribunal found that Stone, 42, had a “dictatorial and intimidating” style of management, based on evidence supplied by three female employees, and ordered her to pay £28,567.17 compensation to a former employee who she fired for complaining about mistreatment by her.

According to Private Eye, which ran the best story on the case, clients of Stone’s Aurora recruitment company who enter the Times “competition” for an award always get one, which doesn’t say a lot for the integrity of all involved.