Barclays ordered to pay ex-banker $63,000 over working hours
15/11/2024 6:07
Barclays has been
ordered to pay a former banker with endometriosis and anxiety
almost 50,000 pounds ($63,500) for failing to adjust her working
hours and for sex discrimination, a London tribunal has ruled.
The East London Employment Tribunal told the bank to pay
Anca Lacatus damages for personal injury and injury to her
feelings. But it dismissed her damages claims for loss of past
and future earnings and the cost of medical treatment and care.
Barclays declined to comment and a lawyer for Lacatus did
not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lacatus, an analyst from 2016 to 2020, had claimed damages
of around 4 million pounds after partially winning an employment
case in 2021 in which she argued that her line manager used
sexist language and that she had to work 40-48 hours per week on
average while suffering from endometriosis.
In a judgment made public on Thursday, the tribunal said
there was no dispute about the "tragic circumstances" faced by
Lacatus, who now lives in Romania with her parents but cannot
afford medical treatment and is unable to work.
But it did not award damages for loss of earnings, because
it ruled there was a "100% chance" that she would have faced the
same mental and physical health prognosis without the bank's
unlawful conduct.
"It follows that Barclays ought not be ordered to (pay)
compensation for any pain suffering or loss of amenity after
that point," it added in a judgment dated Oct. 29.
Although she also lost her claim for unfair dismissal or
breach of contract in 2021, her success in the sexist element of
her case - which centred on her line manager using the term
"birds" to refer to female employees - was seen as a victory for
women battling "banter" in London's financial district.
She was awarded 1,527 pounds for sex discrimination,
including interest.
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