A 55-year-old Managing Director for energy banking - Niels Kirk - was found to have been unfairly dismissed by the global bank Citigroup in November 2017 after he had allegedly been told by his boss, “You are old and set in your ways.” He had been employed by Citigroup since June 1991.
Mr Kirk made his claim in February 2018.
His boss - who is global co-head of banking - denied telling Mr Kirk that he was old and set in his ways. However, the judge – John Goodrich – found that Mr Kirk’s boss’s evidence was less convincing than Mr Kirk’s, who took notes during the meeting.
Mr Kirk stated that he had not been given any notice of the proposed restructuring and the fact that he was likely to be made redundant but a senior banker at Citigroup assessed Mr Kirk at the end of 2015 and told him:
“The team is stronger, with the time coming to provide the next level of bankers with more opportunities to demonstrate the quality and depth of their customer relationships and deal management capabilities.”
In the ruling made by Judge Goodrich, it stated that Citigroup did not accept that the comment meant that Mr Kirk should make way for younger staff members - but it simply expressed the need for the senior manager to develop and improve the skills of team members.
When Mr Kirk’s record at the firm was scrutinised in detail, it was found that generally he had very good ratings and feedback, but with some decline over the past few years.
A witness - co-head of corporate banking EMEA - said there were concerns about Mr Kirk’s partnership skills, based on the feedback received in the performance review processes for 2015 and 2016 and a senior banker who managed Mr Kirk gave evidence stating that he carried out a “stress-testing exercise” by comparing Mr Kirk’s skills with those of Ms Marie-Christine Olive, who had been lined up as the preferred candidate for Mr Kirk’s replacement.
The tribunal heard that Mr Kirk contended that this was not meaningful, because the decision to replace him had already been reached.
The tribunal was sceptical about explanations given for the replacement of Mr Kirk with the slightly younger Ms Olive. It found that before Mr Kirk was notified on 25 September 2017of the proposed restructure, Ms Olive had already been informed that she was their preferred candidate for the position and asked to confirm that she wanted the role.
The tribunal also noted that HR had not kept full records of meetings between Mr Kirk and the above bankers, although the court heard that it was normal for HR to keep these records.
Mr Kirk asserted that the decision to pass him over was based on his age rather than his skills and the tribunal agreed, ruling that Citigroup was guilty of age discrimination when it dismissed him.
Neils Kirk stated:
“I still feel extremely sad about the way my 26-year career at Citibank ended.”
