Banker wins £2m for sexual discrimination in ‘witch hat’ case
A City banker who had a witch’s hat left on her desk by drunken male colleagues has won more than £2m in compensation for sexual discrimination.
Stacey Macken, 50, sued French bank BNP Paribas after being belittled by her boss who kept telling her “not now, Stacey” – a phrase he used so often that colleagues even copied it.
The £120k-a-year finance specialist claimed that over a four-year period she received hundreds of thousands of pounds less than her male peers in salary and bonuses and that after she complained, managers targeted her with unfair treatment.
Macken won £2,081,449 after suing the international bank, reportedly one of the largest awards ever made by a British tribunal.
The employment judge, Emma Burns, criticised Macken’s bosses for acting “spitefully and vindictively” and increased her compensation because the bank failed to apologise to her.
The London Central tribunal heard that Macken, previously a vice-president at Deutsche Bank, was hired by BNP in Paribas in 2013.
But unknown to her, a man hired with the same job title and responsibilities was being paid £160,000.
Within months of joining, she claimed she was exposed to sexist behaviour involving one of her bosses in the prime brokerage team, Matt Pinnock.
His former PA, Georgina Chapman, told a tribunal: “In October 2013, a large Halloween-style black witch’s hat was left on Stacey Macken’s desk after some of the prime brokerage team, including Matthew Pinnock, had gone drinking at the pub towards the end of the day.”
She added: “Stacey was visibly upset and confided in me that she felt really uncomfortable working with those male colleagues, knowing that one of them had purposefully gone out of their way to leave a witch’s hat on her desk.”
Another boss,
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