Not quite as catchy as “lunch is for wimps” but not far off.

An employment tribunal heard that the statement was made by Hugh Crossey senior partner of PwC Northern Ireland, in an email to another partner in respect of Colin Tenner.

Mr Tenner, a former PwC equity partner, is suing the firm for disability discrimination, claiming that his redundancy in February 2009 was a sham to disguise PwC’s deliberate decision to dismiss him because he was off on stress leave.

In another incident, Mr Crossey is alleged to have told Mr Tenner that work must come first and that his “personal feelings did not matter”.

PwC said that it rejected Mr Tenner’s version of events and the case continues.