Are Wall Street’s Job Cuts Tainted with Discriminatory Practices?

 

Wall Street banks are targeting their mid-level, middle-age employees for termination in an effort to reduce costs in this down market, according to “Mid-Career Workers Squeezed Off of the Street.” Approximately 113,000 employees (nearly half of those aged 35 to 54) at U.S. investment banks and brokerages have been terminated since 2008, according to the article, citing a FINS.com analysis of data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By contrast, 62,000 employees (39% of those aged 20 to 34) have been terminated, while bankers aged 55 and over increased by 18%.

“They’re expensive and relatively expendable,” said Dan Ryan, a partner in charge of the banking practice at executive recruiter Heidrick & Struggles in New York, referring to the mid-level employees. Young, junior employees work particularly hard and are relatively cheap, and senior employees have the lion’s share of valuable client relationships.

“They’re not pruning here, they’re lobbing off,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s, was quoted as saying, adding: ” And they’re not worried about productivity. They are going to be looking at ‘What is this person costing me?'”

The statistics suggest that Wall Street’s actions could be viewed as discriminatory. As the article indicates, federal laws prohibiting age discrimination apply to employees over the age of 40. Terminated employees in the protected age groups may want to explore their legal options.

Atlanta Attorney J. Boyd Page observed: “As brokers and other bank employees are being fired or forced to leave, I would expect this to lead to disputes involving annual bonuses, front-end bonuses, retention bonuses, possible wrongful termination claims, and other issues arising out of brokers’ employment agreements and the circumstances of the terminations.”

Page Perry routinely handles a wide variety of employment law matters. The firm’s employment law services range from drafting or advising clients about employment agreements and related documents to litigating or arbitrating employment related disputes. Over the years, the firm has developed particular experience and knowledge in dealing with employment law disputes associated with the securities and financial services industries.

Page Perry attorneys have successfully handled employment law disputes involving employee bonuses and loans, constructive termination, restrictive covenants and non-compete agreements, confidentiality agreements, stock option agreements, age, race and gender discrimination, and severance packages.

Page Perry is an Atlanta-based law firm with an active practice in representing individuals in employment disputes with firms in the financial services industry. In the past several years, the firm has won arbitration award for clients in employment disputes in the amounts of $1.7 and $3.9 million. For further information, please contact www.pageperry.com.