A senior financial analyst known as “the godfather of retail” is suing a leading bank for age discrimination, a tribunal heard today.
Tony Shiret claims Credit Suisse, which made him redundant at the age of 55, favoured younger employees. He told how he was targeted by his employer “because of my age”.
Mr Shiret, one of the most experienced and highly regarded analysts covering the retail sector, was made redundant in June 2011 after 18 years with the bank, as part of cuts in Credit Suisse’s equities department.
In his witness statement at East London employment tribunal, Mr Shiret, from Barnet, claims the redundancy procedure was “pre-selected without any consultation, weighted against me and inherently unfair”.
He claims he should have scored higher than a counterpart in his thirties in a redundancy pool of four people.
Claiming the results were “fixed” and his dismissal was a done deal, he said: “It is apparent that I was targeted for redundancy whilst my younger subordinate Assad Malic was given some form of assurance that he would progress in his career.
“It will be seen these scores were inherently unfair and were tainted by age discrimination. In particular Mr Malic was scored higher in two categories when there was no objective rationale for this.”
The analyst, voted 79th in the Retail Week Power 100 list, is also claiming unfair dismissal. He says Credit Suisse “merely went through the motions” of a redundancy procedure when emails between banking bosses clearly earmarked him for dismissal. The hearing was told one read: “Can we offer Tony retirement? He’s 55 this year.”
Mr Shiret said: “I believe this communication supports my contention that Credit Suisse had decided to get rid of me because of my age in order to advance Mr Malic.”
Credit Suisse said it “vigorously” denies his allegations.
The hearing continues.
