Dismissed Credit Agricole Banker Loses Bonus Claim

Dismissed Credit Agricole Banker Loses Bonus Claim


Bloomberg has reported that a former investment banker at Credit Agricole, Edward Willems has failed in his multi-million pound claim that  he was dismissed because he blew the whistle on inappropriate behaviour by his manager.

The compensation for whisleblowing claims is uncapped and Mr Willems (like many bankers who bring claims) sought to use this to claim millions of pounds based on the high bonuses he had received in the past. Mr Willems also claimed that his 2010 bonus of £867,896 was “strikingly low and utterly inappropriate” and was further evidence that he had been victimised for raising concerns about his manager.

The employment tribunal decided that Mr Willems was dismissed because Credit Agricole had decided he “was not the appropriate person to take on the new sales role” and “was too closely associated with the earlier regime”. Therefore, his whistleblowing claim failed.

The tribunal upheld Mr Willem’s claim that he had been unfairly dismissed. A compensatory award of up to £70,000 is usually made in successful unfair dismissal cases, but in this case the tribunal decided that it was inappropriate to make any award and that Mr Willems “must be content with a finding that his dismissal was unfair.”