Nomura banker has 1 mln stg sex descrimination case rejected at Appeal Court

LONDON (AFX) – Senior banker Andrea Madarassy today had her 1 mln stg sex discrimination legal action against Nomura International unanimously rejected at the Appeal Court.

Hungarian-born Madarassy was ordered to pay Nomuras legal costs — estimated at 300,000 stg, with 80,000 stg due within 28 days — but is backed by the Equal Opportunities Commission, which is footing the bill.

The three sitting judges refused her leave to take the long-running dispute to the House of Lords. Their decision upholds the earlier findings of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, which said in April last year that no sex discrimination had occurred.

Madarassy had claimed her bosses at Nomura International ‘abused and humiliated’ her while she was pregnant and made her redundant after she gave birth.

She joined Nomura’s equity capital market division in January, 2000, and was made redundant in September, 2001.

Speaking after the court’s decision, Madarassy said she was disappointed by the outcome but thought it important to ‘raise the issue of the treatment of pregnant women in the workplace, particularly in the City’.

Nomura International’s Stephen Sidebottom said the company’s decision to defend the case had been vindicated.

‘We have maintained throughout that Andrea was not discriminated against – neither for being a woman nor a mother – when made redundant in 2001, and at every stage the courts have agreed,’ he said.

‘We recognise that accepting the loss of ones job, for whatever reason, can be difficult and hope todays judgment will encourage Andrea to put these years of litigation behind her’.

Meanwhile, the Appeal Court judges also upheld the tribunal’s ruling Madarassy pay 2,000 stg to Nomura towards their Tribunal costs.

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