Merrill Lynch secret pay battle

Lawyers for sacked Merrill Lynch banker Stephanie Villalba today tried to force her employers to reveal details of pay deals.

Only by examining the pay awards of up to 170 staff, they said, would they be able to prove statistically that Ms Villalba had been discriminated against because of her sex.

Ms Villalba, 42, who earned up to $1 million (?545,000) a year before being dismissed last summer, has launched a ?7.5 million claim against Merrill Lynch alleging sex discrimination, victimisation and unfair dismissal.

She has told an employment tribunal she was paid $549,000 in 2002 when 10 male colleagues in similar positions earned up to $1 million, and that among many humiliations suffered at the hands of her boss, Ausaf Abbas, she was made to serve drinks on the bank's corporate jet. Today she went to an employment appeals tribunal to overturn a decision by the employment tribunal in Croydon that Merrill Lynch need not disclose pay details.

City employment lawyers are watching today's "battle within a battle" because if Ms Villalba wins the appeal, it will be another milestone in undermining employers' ability to keep secret their salary scales and bonuses for senior staff.