Female banker awarded £177k a year for 15 years says others are owed too
Stacey Macken is back. After winning £2.1m ($2.8m) from BNP Paribas on the grounds of gender discrimination in 2021, the former product manager in BNP's prime broking division is now arguing that other women suffered at the French bank too.
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In her new filing, Macken claims that BNP cut 60% from the bonuses of women in its primary markets division in 2019 at the behest of Frederic Zorzi, BNP's current head of primary markets. Macken says that money was then given to male bankers instead. She claims that BNP ignored internal whistleblowers who raised the issue.
In a statement, BNP Paribas said: “We fully investigated all of these allegations when originally raised, a process then reviewed by an independent investigation more recently when they were incorporated into the current complaint. No wrongdoing was found and therefore no disciplinary process was followed.”
Zorzi didn't respond to our attempt to get in touch.
Macken's original court case made no reference to Zorzi and his allegedly preferential treatment of men. Instead, it referred heavily to Macken's boss, who still works for BNP but was not a defendant.
In her 2021 case, Macken successfully claimed that she was unfairly underpaid relative to a male hire who first negotiated a higher starting salary (on the grounds that he was about to be promoted in his previous job and that BNP's initial offer felt "low") and who was then consistently awarded higher bonuses than she was, as per the chart below.
BNP Paribas' bonuses for Stacey Macken (claimant) versus bonuses for her male colleague (claimant 1)
Source: Court Judgement
Bloomberg says Macken's settlement from BNP included "future pay" from the French bank at a rate of £177k a year, with a 5% allowance for inflation until she retires at the age of 65. This was to compensate for being signed off work with ill health as a result of the discrimination she experienced. Macken was 50 when this was awarded. She's now contesting the 5% cap and trying to increase the value of her claim to £3.8m.
If Macken is able to prove that BNP intentionally took bonuses from female bankers and gave them to men, the implication is that other women there might be entitled to compensation too. BNP's most recent gender pay gap report for London shows that 83% of its highest earners are men.
Since being signed off work in perpetuity, Macken has been busy campaigning for equal pay and for an end to the use of dogs in animal testing. She didn't respond to a request to comment for this article.
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