Not quite, the DfT response was to say no to a straight pay rise, as this was against their policy and would lead to other claims, but to "seek another solution", which is thinly-guarded civil service-speak for them recognising the issue, just find something else which can give more money without calling it pay - regrade the staff, devise an Additional Responsibility Element, whatever.
Chiltern's original costings for their franchise would have assumed some ratio, say 1:20, for driver managers, as an overhead of the business. If reality was only 1:40 then that is money into Chiltern's pocket - it's not even as if they didn't have scope to be creative.
Always understood this was quite normal on the railway. David L Smith wrote that he found Driver Caudle, from ther Ais Gill major collision in 1913, on yard work only at Carlisle 10 years later.
One thing I didn't see (or missed) was how often does the tripcock actually activate spuriously, on or off LT tracks. Is it happening a common occurence? How often had this driver done so before? Does it become a bit of a reflex action?
Separately, I don't think I've ever seen a formal accident report before which used the "bullying" word explicitly about a senior management member. It must be quite obvious who was being referred to. Are they still in post?