The bullies were wrong: Former Citi FX Director Carly McWilliams career flourishes after winning tribunal
After winning her employment tribunal against Citi in April for unfair dismissal, Carly McWilliams joins eFX liquidity and distribution firm Edgewater Markets.
Back in February this year, former Citigroup interbank G10 spot FX senior executive Carly McWilliams, who left the bank in November 2014 after 16 years at Director level, brought the company to Tribunal in London.
Ms. McWilliams explained that FX traders were encouraged to share client orders with employees of other banks by executives at the bank.
Citi, which is a very prominent FX dealer in the interbank sector, fired Carly McWilliams when she was fired from her position in November 2014 whilst on maternity leave, with the bank alleging that she had taken a part in the FX rate rigging scandal as the reason for her dismissal.
In August last year, Ms McWilliams filed an unfair dismissal claim along with three other FX traders Perry Stimpson, David Madaras and Robert Hoodless. Mr Stimpson actually won his unfair dismissal claim against Citi in November 2015.
In April, Ms McWilliams, who was suspended from the company whilst on maternity leave, also won her unfair dismissal case against Citi, the court in London finding that Citi acted unfairly whilst disciplining her.
At that time, despite her win, it was a slightly hollow victory for Ms. McWilliams, largely because whilst the court found that Citi had failed to follow the correct procedures before letting her go, the judge ruled that her conduct had contributed to her suspension which would limit any financial award for unfair dismissal.
Until now, the actual settlement has not been published, however Ms. McWilliams has proven her former employer to be incorrect in its assumption that she would destroy her career by entering into a Tribunal against the bank.
In late 2015, when Ms. McWilliams made her case clear that she was intending to launch a tribunal, the bank refused to negotiate, and previously in 2014, in the case of colleague Mr. Stimpson, who has also won his case, a manager at the company told him “I am sorry to see your career end this way.”
Despite the dubious conduct that many traders carried out during the latter part of last decade and the initial part of this decade, it is clear that a Tribunal win is enough to set the course straight in that banks also have to administer the correct procedure when dealing with errant employees that are the subject of disciplinary action.
Ms. McWilliams’ career is far from over. Indeed, she has recently joined London-based eFX liquidity aggregation and distribution company Edgewater Markets in a senior sales capacity.
