A former manager at Commerzbank has been awarded almost $370,000 in compensation after a judge ruled she had been denied a promotion because she is a woman.
Jagruti Rajput, who was employed as deputy head of markets compliance in Commerzbank’s London office, argued in a longstanding legal battle against the German lender that she had been unlawfully discriminated against at work because of her sex.
A panel of employment judges unanimously ruled that there was a 60% chance Rajput would have been promoted to head of markets had she not been subjected to illegal discrimination.
London’s employment tribunal also found that Rajput’s role had been “diminished” while she was on maternity leave, with a colleague taking over substantial elements of Rajput’s job that were not handed back upon her return.
Long battle
The tribunal ruled in her favor for a second time last year, with details of the damages awarded to Rajput published on Monday. Rajput has been fighting her former employer in court since 2017.
She was awarded a total £300,685 ($369,160) to cover her loss of salary, bonus and pension payments, with the damages including interest on those payments and a £25,000 payment for injury to her feelings.
Court documents showed that Rajput’s salary in her role with Commerzbank was £97,251, with a yearly target bonus of £40,000.
Internal emails showed that the proposed salary for the successful candidate was £160,000, with a target bonus of £40,000.
In the judgement from last year, it was found that Rajput’s application for promotion was never fairly considered, and that one of her male subordinates was treated as the senior member of her team despite her position as its deputy head.
Giving evidence to the tribunal, Rajput’s line manager described her “divisive personality” as a reason for making her male coworker a “point person” in the team.
It was also ruled that Rajput had been “harassed” by her employer because when she raised the issue, there were repeated denials from one senior staff member that her colleague’s position had been elevated.
Giving evidence about the impact those denials had had on her, Rajput said she felt she was being “undermined.”
“It…made me doubt myself and think I was going mad when he knew exactly what he was doing,” she told the tribunal.
“We concluded that the effect of the treatment was sufficient to create a degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the claimant,” the judges said, ruling that she had been “misled by a manager about an important matter in the face of significant evidence to the contrary.”
A spokesperson for Commerzbank said in an emailed statement that the bank was disappointed in the tribunal’s decision, and that the company was in the early stages of an appeal.
“The Bank strives to offer an inclusive working environment and does not tolerate workplace discrimination of any sort,” the bank said.
