"Banker wins £2m for sexual discrimination in ‘witch hat’ case", 31 Jan 2022

A City banker who had a witch’s hat left on her desk by drunken male colleagues has won more than £2m in compensation for sexual discrimination.

Stacey Macken, 50, sued French bank BNP Paribas after being belittled by her boss who kept telling her “not now, Stacey” – a phrase he used so often that colleagues even copied it.

The £120k-a-year finance specialist claimed that over a four-year period she received hundreds of thousands of pounds less than her male peers in salary and bonuses and that after she complained, managers targeted her with unfair treatment.

Macken won £2,081,449 after suing the international bank, reportedly one of the largest awards ever made by a British tribunal.

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 London Central tribunal heard that Macken, previously a vice-president at Deutsche Bank, was hired by BNP in Paribas in 2013.

But unknown to her, a man hired with the same job title and responsibilities was being paid £160,000.

The tribunal ruled the leaving of a witch’s hat on her desk was an “inherently sexist act” and the regular use of “not now, Stacey” was branded a “demeaning comment”.

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”.