A senior British banker wants to sue the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for race, age and sex discrimination over claims he was pushed out by an Australian woman 13 years his junior.
Head of finance and operations John Marshall, 60, was made redundant after 27 years at the bank after Debbie Lotz, 47, moved to London from the head office in Sydney.
Mr Marshall, of Tonbridge, Kent, claims Australian staff were favoured over Brits.
John Marshall, 60, (pictured left) is suing the Commonwealth Bank of Australia over claims Debbie Lotz, 47, (pictured right) was able to ‘push him out’ because she was younger and from Australia
Shortly after Ms Lotz arrived in September 2015 she began scheming with line manager Alan Docherty to take over Mr Marshall’s position and sack three of his staff, a hearing at the Central London Employment Tribunal heard.
Ms Lotz is also said to have begun counselling Australian members of Mr Marshall’s team without his knowledge.
And it was only after he had been offered his redundancy package that he discovered his rival and line manager were in cahoots, the tribunal heard.
Mr Marshall said: ‘It was clear to me that Debbie had not been selected because she was better for the role than I was, it seemed that the most obvious difference between us was our age but I was also concerned that Debbie may have been preferred because she is a woman, or because she is Australian.
‘Staff in the London office generally felt that head office staff were favoured over the staff in regional offices like ours.
‘Australian staff were often seconded to the business in London with little consultation and against the wishes of management.
‘My team members being counselled by Debbie were either junior members of staff, or staff who were Australian or began working for the Respondent in Australia.
Judge David Pearl asked him if ‘she had just barged in with her size 11’s trampling all over your territory?’
But Mr Marshall replied: ‘I think they were probably responding to an offer, it would be strange to make an offer to someone else’s team without clearing it with their manager first.’
Mr Marshall (pictured), of Tonbridge, Kent, made his claims at the Central London Employment Tribunal
The day before filing a grievance, the banker went rifling through Ms Lotz’ desk and discovered a ‘target chart’ detailing redundancies and a team restructure.
He continued: ‘As part of the review I looked at all desk tops and in unlocked cabinets to ascertain if any key bank information was accessible.
‘When I got to Debbie’s desk I noticed that her middle drawer was open with the key in.
‘I opened the middle and bottom drawers to assess if any bank information was at risk.
‘The bottom drawer was fairly full with A4 documents but there was a small pile of roughly folded documents on top.
‘The chart labelled ‘target’ showed a plan to reduce headcount in London with six roles to be made redundant.
‘Below that a list of five roles to be created appeared. What the chart showed was that Debbie was to take my role.’
The 60-year-old (pictured) went through Ms Lotz’ files, but he claims it for professional reasons
Mr Marshall said he was ‘so shocked and appalled by what I had read that I didn’t know what to do.’
He also told the hearing he found documents that confirmed his redundancy in March 2016, when he was only told in June.
He added: ‘I was hurt that the plan to dismiss me had been so clear and long-term.’
But in response Gavin Mansfield QC accused Mr Marshall of taking copies of the chart for his own personal gain and said he could have contacted Ms Lotz’s manager to tell her she left the drawer unlocked.
He said: ‘You did not contact her manager to say she was not locking her drawers, you did not send out any sort of reminder to say ‘lock your drawers’.
‘And you did not take any steps to get anyone to fix the desk drawer.
‘You were thinking these documents were going to be to your cause and you did not want anyone to know that you had found them.’
The hearing at the Central London Employment Tribunal (pictured) is still ongoing
During his redundancy meeting in June 2016 Mr Marshall’s manager is said to have told him he wanted someone new.
Mr Marshall said: ‘I argued the decision was completely illogical that Debbie was not qualified for the role.
‘He said: “John your problem is you are too entrenched in this role and we want someone new.”
‘You are a key man risk and we want to take everything off you.’
The banker explained this meant that a ‘man risk’ was someone who was so involved in a given operation, they posed a risk if anything was to happen to them.
He added: ‘Alan seemed a bit annoyed at my questioning of the decision and suggestion of any other outcome and said “I’ve made my decision and that’s it’.”
The bank deny the claims, saying it was a straightforward redundancy.
The hearing continues.