A witch’s hat left on her desk by drunken male colleagues, a four-year period and hundreds of thousands of pounds less than her male peers in salary and bonuses, requests for a more equal treatment and her boss who kept telling her “not now, Stacey” – a phrase he used so often that colleagues even copied it. After she complained, managers targeted her with unfair treatment. Stacey Macken sued French bank BNP Paribas after being belittled by her boss and colleagues and has been awarded more than £2m for sexual discrimination. £2,081,449 one of the largest awards ever made by a British tribunal. Macken, 22-year career in banking, was hired by BNP in Paribas in 2013 as £120k-a-year finance specialist – a man hired with the same job title and responsibilities was being paid £160,000. Stacy Macken was successful in her claims of sex discrimination, victimisation, and unequal pay. The employment judge, Emma Burns, criticised Macken’s bosses for acting “spitefully and vindictively” and increased her compensation because the bank failed to apologise to her. The bank claimed it has now adopted a “detailed gender strategy and gender action plan” in response to its poor gender pay gap and is “trying to increase the number of women at senior management level”. It’s time to close the gap!
