Andrea Madarassy worked for Nomura
International as an equities banker but was made redundant in 2001
while on maternity leave. She made a £1 million sex discrimination
claim.
The Court of Appeal ruled in the case, which
was itself appealed from the Employment Appeals Tribunal, and found
that Madarassy had not met the burden of proof required to show
that she was discriminated against because of her sex.
The burden of proof in a sex discrimination
claim is complicated, and it shifts from one party to another. In
his ruling Lord Justice Mummery admitted that there is "an air of
unreality about all of this", but that Madarassy had not managed to
shift the burden of proof to Nomura.
The person bringing the case must prove that
they were treated differently by an employer, and that that
treatment could have been as a result of sexual discrimination. If
they do, the employer must then prove that it did not discriminate
on grounds of sex, which is notoriously hard to do.
Madarassy's case was crucial in that she was
said to have proved that she was treated differently to others, but
did not prove that that different treatment could have been the
result of sexual discrimination. The judge's analysis could end
there, since Nomura did not have to prove anything because
Madarassy had not proved that there was a case to answer.
"This will stop claimants' lawyers running
away with the notion that all they have to do is prove a difference
in treatment," said Jonathan Coley, an employment specialist with
Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM.
"It's a reinforcement of existing principles
and it confirms that it is not simply a question of the burden of
proof shifting once an individual has shown a difference of
treatment," said Coley. "It is helpful to employers in that
sense."
"The bare facts of a difference in status and
a difference in treatment only indicate a possibility of
discrimination," said Mummery in his ruling. "They are not, without
more, sufficient material from which a tribunal 'could conclude'
that, on the balance of probabilities, the respondent had committed
an unlawful act of discrimination."
The court backed the decision of the
Employment Appeals Tribunal dismissing Madarassy's claim.
The decision follows a number of high profile
cases involving City firms. Helen Green was awarded £800,000 from
her employer Deutsche Bank after her claim of bullying and
harassment at work was backed by the courts.
