Senior City analyst wins Employment Tribunal claim for age discrimination

A former senior analyst at a well-known City of London bank has won his claims at the Employment Tribunal after he was fired last year.

Mr Tony Shiret, 55, worked for the banking giant Credit Suisse for 18 years as a retail analyst until he was made redundant in June 2011. He suspected that he had been subjected to age discrimination by the bank and subsequently made claims for age discrimination and unfair dismissal to the Employment Tribunal.

The case came before Employment Judge Brown at the East London Employment Tribunal last month. The Employment Tribunal heard evidence from Mr Shiret and current and former employees of Credit Suisse. Mr Shiret claimed that he had lost his job in June 2011 because he had been “pre-selected” and that Credit Suisse “merely went through the motions”, that there had not been any consultation, that the redundancy was weighted against him and that his dismissal as a whole had been “inherently unfair”. He also claimed that the redundancy points system was “fixed” in favour of a younger colleague at Credit Suisse – a male in his thirties.

Employment Judge Brown heard evidence from employees of Credit Suisse, including a Mr East, whom the Judge found was “not a credible witness” as “he did not make eye contact, gave brief answers and appeared to be uncomfortable”.

The Employment Tribunal found in Mr Shiret’s favour in his claims for direct age discrimination and unfair dismissal. It did not, however, find in his favour for his claim for indirect discrimination and reduced his compensation by 30% to reflect the chance that he would have been fairly dismissed should a fair redundancy procedure have been carried out.

Mr Shiret commented on his victory that he was “thrilled” that Credit Suisse would be “held to account” and told The Times “I think that you have to give people a chance to demonstrate that they can still do a job and not assume that, once they reach a certain age, they cannot do a job for you,’ he told The Times. The other side can argue that, in this case, it was a screw-up. But if you read the judge’s ruling, it looks more systemic.”

The Employment Tribunal judgment has now been released by the Ministry of Justice. The judgment can be found here: http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Judgments/shiret-et-judgment.pdf.