Nomura woman's new hope in sex bias claim

CITY employers are on the back foot over pregnancy-related sex discrimination following the latest twist in a potential £1m battle between Nomura International and a female former executive.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal this week gave Andrea Madarassy the chance to fight once again the allegation that the bank discriminated against her by revealing a redundancy programme when she was on maternity leave.

The decision comes at a sensitive time for several large City banks, which have announced cost-cutting exercises over the past month. Hundreds of jobs are to go, involving many women at ABN Amro, Credit Suisse First Boston, Commerzbank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan.

Nomura let its City bankers know about a forthcoming redundancy programme in the summer of 2001 but Madarassy claims she was the last to know because the announcement was made while she was on her enforced absence. Her male colleagues were at an immediate advantage, she argues, with more time to fight for their jobs.

Madarassy was also not given any performance targets because she was about to go on maternity leave. When she returned, she still had no targets, effectively discriminating against her on grounds of her sex, she claims, in the jobs reshuffle.

Nomura had dismissed her by November 2001, and 18 months ago an employment tribunal threw out most of her sex claims including the maternity-related issue.

The appeal tribunal ruled this week that it must 'review and reconsider its decisions on the issues defined in this judgment [relating to maternity] and make its further decisions upon them'.

Madarassy, who earned £70,000 a year at Nomura, is thought to be looking for a six-figure sum to compensate her for injury to feelings, and cuts to her bonuses.

Her lawyers at Lawrence Graham said: 'The tribunal has found it had not properly considered her claims of pregnancy-related discrimination and we still hope for a victory on those parts of the claim.'

Most of Madarassy's other grounds for appeal were rejected, a decision that 'pleased' Nomura, the bank said in a statement.

Total legal costs are estimated to have exceeded £1m already.