City banker Latifa Bouabdillah was sacked by the bank after it was revealed she was suing former employer Deutsche Bank for more than £1m in damages, reports The Guardian newspaper.
'Emotional response'
A three-strong panel of employment judges ruled that Commerzbank had ‘victimised [Bouabdillah] for having brought sex discrimination proceedings against her former employer and subjected her to the detrimental dismissal’.
The tribunal added that Commerzbank’s ‘immediate and emotional response’ to discovering the legal action against Deutsche Bank showed that they considered Ms Bouabdillah was ‘not the sort of person they wanted to employ’.
However the tribunal rejected the sexual discrimination charge, with the bank stating that it was ‘considering its legal options with regards to the other part of the claim’.
Damages
A ‘remedy hearing’ is scheduled for September, at which Ms Bouabdillah will reportedly claim for £13m in damages.
Ms Bouabdillah resigned from her post as vice president at Deutsche Bank in 2011 and instigated legal action alleging that male colleagues were promoted ahead of her and received three times the bonuses that she did.
She was then sacked by Commerzbank on 11 June 2012 – less than a month after starting at the Frankfurt-headquartered and only six days after the Deutsche Bank case become public.
Commerzbank claim that the case against Deutsche Bank had put the reputation of her new employer ‘at risk’ and had broken the bank's trust.
The sexual discrimination case against Deutsche Bank was settled out of court and the terms have not been disclosed.
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