BAE Systems has slammed a £360,000 compensation payout to one of its secretaries over a "single sexist comment" at work as "an affront to justice".

When Marion Konczak complained to her male manager that four men she worked with "had bullied and harassed her, including sexually" in 2006, she was told that "women take things more emotionally then men whilst men tend to forget things and move on."

The comment by her line manager was the "final straw" for Mrs Konczak who went off sick with stress from her £22,000 a year job and was dismissed in July 2007, aged 53.

She later took BAE Systems to an Employment Tribunal which upheld the single complaint of sexual discrimination relating the manager's comment.

The tribunal either rejected or made no finding on 15 others.

The panel also ruled that her dismissal was unfair and "an act of victimisation" prompted by her sex discrimination complaints.

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Mrs Konkzak was awarded £360,178.60 compensation in October 2014, the payout amounting to more than 16 times her annual salary.

BAE are now asking top judges in London's Appeal Court to slash her award, claiming it was "grossly excessive" for what happened to her.

But her lawyers insist the payout was fair, because the manager's comment "pushed her over the edge" into a psychiatric breakdown which ruined her working life.

From 1998 until 2007, Mrs Konczak, now 62, worked as a secretary for a branch of the company involved in design and manufacture based in Samlesbury and Warton.

Following her manager's comment and her dismissal, she was plunged into depression and has not been able to work in the 11 years since, her barrister, Tristan Jones, told Lady Justice Gloster, Lord Justice Underhill and Lord Justice Irwin.

She succeeded in proving her case before a tribunal in 2008, but a tooth and nail struggle through numerous appeals and re-hearings has been going on ever since.

Her final payout was assessed in October 2014 at £360,178.60, roughly 16 times her final annual salary and more than 10 times the original compensation figure she was awarded.

Paul Gilroy QC, for BAE, told the judges that Mrs Konczak made 16 sex discrimination complaints to the tribunal in 2008 about the behaviour of four male colleagues, and her then line manager.

But only one of them, relating to the manager's comment, succeeded.

Mr Gilroy told the judges: "The excessive level of compensation awarded is an affront to justice."

Mr Jones, defending the payout, said: "The reason why Mrs Konczak has not been in work since April 2006 is that BAE discriminated against her and then, a year later, when she was fit and keen to return to work, refused to let her return, victimised her, and dismissed her unfairly.

"Her compensation has been calculated on the normal basis reflecting her lost income and pension," he added.

The judges reserved their decision on the case and will give their ruling at a later date.