Case Studies and Fact Sheets
- £2.8m in Racial Discrimination Case (Abbey UK)
- PricewaterhouseCoopers Settles $11 Million Sexual Harassment Case
- Deutsche Bank Employee awarded £800,000 in bullying payout
- Muslim Employees win Multi Million payout over Sexual Harassment
- $74 Million Sexual Discrimination Payout
- £1m bullying payout for Cantor Fitzgerald trader
£2.8m in Racial Discrimination Case (Abbey UK)
An Asian bank worker has won a record £2.8m in compensation for racial discrimination after losing his job.
Balbinder Chagger, 40, of Indian origin, won the payout after convincing a tribunal that during a round of cutbacks, Abbey retrenched him rather than a similarly performing colleague and that his race was a factor in the decision.
He was initially awarded £50,000 but he went back for more, after deciding that he had underestimated his potential losses and future earnings.
In his subsequent claim for £4.3m, he argued that he was now forced to retrain as a Maths teacher after being made redundant from his £100,000-a-year job as a Trading Risk Controller in 2006.
Mr Chagger, of Hayes, Middlesex, said he was turned down for more than 100 job applications before he quit the City entirely.
His lawyers argued that it would not be possible for him to obtain equivalent employment and he should be compensated on the basis he would suffer a 75 per cent loss of earnings.
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS SETTLES $11MILLION SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE
This long running case was settled after an employee claims she was sexually harassed, discriminated against, victimised and bullied.
She sought $11 million in damages for loss of earning, loss of clients, counselling and damage to her reputation.
Ms Rich had detailed a series of alleged sexual harassment incidents from 1999 to 2004.
She alleges a partner felt her breasts and another -- her immediate boss -- repeatedly invited her to his hotel room during a conference in 1999 and adopted a practice of greeting her with a kiss, despite her objections.
This case follows a landmark settlement of $US54 million paid to several women by Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley in New York in July last year over discrimination and workplace sexism.
Deutsche Bank Employee awarded £800,000 in bullying payout
UK High Court Judge, Justice Owen stated that Deutsche Bank had waged a relentless campaign of mean and spiteful behaviour designed to cause distress" that left employee Helen Green on several occasions crying silently at her desk.
The largest part of the £800,000 award to Helen Green a former Deutsche Bank Employee, is the £640,000 awarded for future loss of earnings and a pension.
The case heard that Green who was employed as a Company Secretary Assistant, was verbally abused, ignored and subjected to crude insults.
Colleagues would remove her from circulation lists and hide documents.
The Bank paid for counselling and training but unfortunately Green suffered a nervous breakdown and again relapsed when she returned to work.
Muslim Employees win Multi Million payout over Sexual Harassment
Samira and Hanan Fariad, sisters who both worked for London Trader Tradition made 200 separate allegations of Sexual Harassment & Discrimination against the bank.
The case was dramatically halted after Tradition agreed an out-of-court settlement in return for the women signing confidentiality clauses.
It is believed that the French twins, who both earned six-figure sums, secured a multi-million pound payout after demanding up to £10million in compensation.
Tradition spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on legal fees and tried in vain to prevent any reporting of the women's allegations of sexual misconduct.
It succeeded in keeping secret the identities of leading employees accused of misconduct
Their counsel said that the women were keen that their allegations of sexual harassment be fully reported despite Tradition's bid to ban reporting of them.
The tribunal heard that the women had alleged that brokers took clients to Secrets lap-dancing club on London's Gray's Inn Road.
Tradition's parent company, Compagnie Financiere Tradition, is one of the world's largest broker firms with a 2007 turnover of £770m.
$74 Million Sexual Discrimination Payout
In 2004, Morgan Stanley settled a sex discrimination suit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The lead plaintiff, Alison Schieffelin a Bond Seller, received $12 million.
Schieffelin said that Morgan Stanley condoned a “hostile workplace where men made sexist comments and organised trips to topless bars and strip clubs.”.
Women were excluded from these outings, including her clients.
She eventually filed a complaint with the Commission, which sued the firm.
£1m bullying payout for Cantor Fitzgerald trader
An employee has won £1m in compensation from his former employer, the international broking firm Cantor Fitzgerald.
Steven Horkulak, quit his £400,000-a-year job in June 2000 because Lee Amaitis, the head of the company's UK division, used "the language of criminal intimidators".Mr Amaitis, 53, allegedly told Mr Horkulak, 39, that he would "break him in two" on one occasion. He had also threatened to "rip his head off", the High Court in London was told.Cantor Fitzgerald had argued in court in court that shouting and swearing were commonplace in the broking world because of its highly pressured nature.
However, Mr Justice Newman said in his judgment: "I reject as fallacious that where very substantial sums of money are paid by an employer, it acquires the right to treat employees according to a different standard of conduct
