Commerzbank pays bonus claim

In the most recent example, it has agreed to pay €12,000 ($13,080) to settle a lawsuit in Germany for an unpaid guaranteed bonus, in a dispute that centred on two conflicting versions of an employment contract.

The bank will pay the sum to Gregory Weir, an IT specialist who was head of business re-engineering in Frankfurt. He sued because the English-language version of his contract, which he said the bank prepared for him, promised him a guaranteed annual bonus of €25,000.

But a German-language version did not mention a guarantee. That version was the only one he signed when he joined Commerzbank in March last year.

South African-born Weir, who cannot read German fluently, has acknowledged that it might have been wise to hire a lawyer to check the contract before signing.

Weir said he did not bother checking because his verbal agreement with the bank matched the English version.

After the settlement, Weir's lawyer said a judge in Frankfurt had indicated he might have found it hard to win the case if it went to trial.

This was partly because Weir did sign the German version, and because he left the bank after six months, when his probation ended.

Weir's lawyer says: "Of course we had a good case. But I think Commerzbank settled partly to make my client go away. The claim attracted publicity and the bank didn't like that."

At a hearing in January, Commerzbank showed the court an article about the dispute from Financial News (November 4, 2002) quoting Weir.

The bank said Weir was courting publicity to shore up a weak case.

It declined to comment after agreeing the settlement.

Last month, the bank lost a further court case about a bonus, this time in London.

A former analyst at the bank, Gareth Price Jones, successfully argued that he should be allowed to keep a payment of 265,000, which he regarded as a lock-in.

The bank said it paid the money in 2001 by mistake, but the judge dismissed its argument that Price Jones should have known it was an error and should therefore repay it.

Meanwhile, a whistleblowing court case against Commerzbank could be about to begin in London.

Rajan Russell, formerly head of convertible bonds, has filed a complaint under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1988, which protects staff from victimisation if they reveal wrongdoing by their employer in the public interest.