Banker’s sexism case victory after witch’s hat left on her desk
A FEMALE City worker suffered a campaign of sex discrimination at one of the world’s biggest banks that saw drunken colleagues leave a witch’s hat on her desk.
Stacey Macken, 48, successfully sued French bank BNP Paribas after exposing how it paid her tens of thousands less than male colleagues because she was a woman.
The £120,000-a-year manager was subjected to a ‘hostile’ environment at the bank’s London office, where her boss would routinely bat away her questions by saying: ‘Not now, Stacey.’
Miss Macken is now likely to win a huge sum after suing the global bank for £4million, although the size of the settlement has yet to be determined.
A tribunal this week found that the City worker had suffered direct sex discrimination and been subjected to victimisation after raising concerns about her treatment.
Miss Macken, who was previously a vice president at Deutsche Bank with 28 years in the industry, joined the company as a development manager in its prime brokerage division in 2013.
But unbeknown to her, a man hired with the same job title and responsibilities was being paid £160,000. The tribunal heard that over four years her male peer was paid more than £ 167,000 in bonuses, compared to her £33,000.
It ruled that Miss Macken suffered the ‘ extreme’ disparity because she was a woman, stoked by the negative reaction of her male bosses to her repeated complaints about equal pay. In evidence, Miss Macken described how she was victimised from the minute she blew the whistle on the gender pay gap.
Georgina Chapman, a PA in the victim’s team, described how a witch’s hat was left on her desk after the department’s mainly male employees had returned to the office after a drinking session.
She said: ‘I was working later than usual and was packing up to leave as they came back. They were visibly drunk and were racing around the nearly empty office being loud and boisterous.’
She described how Miss Macken was left ‘visibly upset’ after discovering the item the following morning and confided her unease at working with people who would carry out such an act.
The judgment said: ‘ Leaving a witch’s hat on a female employee’s desk, in a predominantly male working environment, was an inherently sexist act. [It] potentially reflects on the nature of working environment for the Claimant and the approach that was taken to women.’
London Central employment tribunal heard how when interviewed for a job, Miss Macken was dismissed as ‘ too light’ by department head Denis Pihan, in an apparent reference to her sex.
It heard how 12 women had previously been interviewed to work in the department but were not employed, with bosses only willing to accept Miss Macken if she was treated as ‘junior’.
Mr Pihan was accused of routinely demeaning by replying ‘ Not now, Stacey’ when she tried to talk to him. The tribunal heard he made the demeaning comment so often that colleagues used the phrase sarcastically. ‘When Mr Pihan made this comment he was belittling the claimant in a way he did not nearly so often do to her male colleagues,’ the judgment said.
The tribunal noted how men were treated with more gravitas, with Miss Macken’s male equivalent deemed more ‘senior’.
The ruling found that the firm had belittled Miss Macken by suggesting she should find another bank to work for after raising a grievance. Miss Macken, of Fulham, west London, was eventually given a £5,000 rise in March 2015 to ‘narrow the gender pay gap’.
Having complained, she was signed off with anxiety in July 2018. A bank spokesman said that it did not wish to comment.
‘Routinely told: Not now, Stacey’