Goldman Sachs has criticised a ruling to award one of its former senior executives a £1.45m payout following his dismissal while on paternity leave. Jonathan Reeves, who was the deputy global head of the bank’s compliance ‘control room’ in London, was dismissed in 2022 when he was due to return from his extended parental leave.
Mr Reeves had been with the bank since 2007 and took six months of contractual parental leave starting in November 2021. Before his return, he was informed he was at risk of redundancy and had his access cut off. He subsequently sued for sex discrimination and unfair dismissal.
A Tribunal found in its original 2024 ruling that Goldman Sachs failed on procedural grounds, including not consulting him at a formative stage or making reasonable efforts to place him in alternative roles. The Tribunal also noted that the bank had expected him to secure a new internal role while on leave, and his manager later called him “lazy” for not doing so.
Earlier this week, a judge awarded Mr Reeves £1.45m. This figure was reached after a deduction for a 50 per cent likelihood he would have been fairly made redundant regardless. The payout covers injury to feelings, lost earnings, a penalty against Goldman for procedural failures, and compensation for “stigma” across London’s financial sector, as his legal action severely hampered his efforts to secure another role in the City.
A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs stated: “Goldman Sachs is a market leader in paid parental leave and encourages all working parents regardless of gender to take the full 26 weeks paid leave offered to them. We strongly disagree with this decision.”