Posted on 12/23/2004 8:09:59 AM PST by flitton
Former executive at the London offices of Merrill Lynch has lost her £7.5m ($14.6m) sex discrimination case against the US investment bank.
An employment tribunal dismissed Stephanie Villalba's allegations of sexual discrimination and unequal pay.
But the 42-year-old won her claim of unfair dismissal, resulting from her sacking in August 2003. The part victory is likely to reduce her compensation to about £50k, a fraction of what she was demanding, damages will be decided in the New Year.
The action - the biggest claim heard by an employment tribunal in the UK - had been viewed as a potential landmark case.
The tribunal decided that Ms Villalba had been unfairly dismissed because, deciding that after being removed from her senior post entitled to wait to see if a suitable alternative position could be found in the company.
Ms Villalba the former head of Merrill's private client business in Europe, has made no decision on whether to appeal her lawyers described the decision as "very disappointing", but pointed to some criticism of Merrill's procedures within the judgement
The tribunal did uphold Ms Villalba's claim of victimisation on certain issues, that included bullying e-mails in connection with a contract, but found no evidence of "laddish culture" at the bank.
Merrill Lynch spokesperson said the company always maintained the case was about performance not gender.
Stating that Ms Villalba had been removed by the very same person who had promoted her into the position and that she had been replaced her with another woman.
Underling the fact by that Merrill Lynch was dedicated to creating a true meritocracy where every employee has the opportunity to advance based on their skills and hard work.
Ms Villalba based in London worked for Merrill's global private client business in Europe, investing funds for some of Merrill's most important customers.
In 2003 her employers told her she had no future after 17 years with the company, and she was made redundant.
Merrill Lynch denied Ms Villalba's claims and said she was removed from her post because of the extensive losses the firm was suffering on the continent.
The firm had reported to the tribunal that Ms Villalba's section was losing about $1m a week at the time.
Merrill's reason was that in their opinion Ms Villalba did not pocess the leadership qualities to reverse the trend within her section.
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