£1.6 MILLION-A-YEAR CITYTRADER IS SUING HIS EMPLOYER FOR £92,000 AFTER CLAIMING HE DID NOT GET A BIG ENOUGH BONUS, IT IS REVEALED TODAY
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21.10.08
Alexandre Mouradian, head of the exchange-traded options desk at
Tradition Securities & Futures, took the brokers to an employment
tribunal over the alleged shortfall in his 2006 performance payment.
Mr Mouradian, 38, won the original tribunal case and an appeal,
but French-owned Tradition has now taken it to the Court of Appeal.
The case comes at a time of unprecedented criticism of the
"irresponsible" bonus culture in the City, which many critics claim
was a major factor in the banking crisis.
Court papers reveal that Mr Mouradian, who earns a basic salary of
£300,000, was given responsibility for dividing up the twice-yearly
bonus pool among himself and his team of seven employees and one
consultant.
For the second half of 2006, he awarded himself £1.32 million –
or 92 per cent of the pool – while three colleagues got much smaller
amounts of £60,000, £47,000 and £2,000. Four others got nothing. Mr
Mouradian is disputing the way in which company costs were allocated,
reducing the size of the bonus pool. He claims he is entitled to
another £92,571.60 .
The trader, who has worked for the inter-dealer broking arm of
France’s Compagnie Financière Tradition since 1997, lives in a £3
million end-of-terrace house in Knightsbridge. A stream of builders
arrived at the house this morning and said that £50,000 worth of
refurbishment had recently been done.
The case is a rare insight into the shadowy world of City bonus
calculation.
Many including Gordon Brown have said that bonuses have to be curbed
to stop traders taking excessive risks.
Last year City workers got almost £8 billion but the payout is
expected to fall this year after banks’ huge losses.
Mr Mouradian has brought his case under the Employment Rights
Act, which prohibits the unlawful deduction of an employee’s
wages. Tradition confirmed the proceedings but did not comment further
and Mr Mouradian refused to comment.
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