Goldman settles £20mn employment tribunal case with former banker

Goldman Sachs has agreed to settle an employment tribunal case with a banker who was suing it for £20mn claiming he was a whistleblower and had been bullied and unfairly dismissed.

Thomas Doyle, who formerly worked at Citigroup, started at Goldman in December 2018 and was head of Emea synthetic swap sales in London before his employment was terminated in July 2021. 

He was suing Goldman Sachs International as well as four senior Goldman bankers at the Central London Employment Tribunal claiming £20mn in a case that started earlier this week. 

Doyle alleged he had made protected disclosures as a whistleblower, that he was subject to detriment and suffered “bullying and exclusion” and that he was unfairly dismissed by the bank. Goldman had denied his allegations and described his case as “a hopelessly weak whistleblowing claim”.

The tribunal had been due to hear testimony from a number of senior Goldman bankers next week after Doyle completed his evidence on Thursday.

However on Friday afternoon James Laddie KC, barrister representing Goldman, told the tribunal that Doyle had agreed to withdraw his unfair dismissal and whistleblowing claims. He said a settlement agreement had been reached in principle in relation to Doyle’s unfair dismissal claims and added that Goldman “attached no value to the whistleblowing claims”.

What I found during the course of my employment with Goldman Sachs — and this was borne out by the fact my employment was terminated as a result — is that there wasn’t a culture of transparency and openness.

Details of the settlement are confidential but the maximum statutory award for unfair dismissal is capped at around £90,000. Compensation awards for protected disclosure and whistleblowing claims are uncapped.

This week the employment tribunal heard details of Doyle’s case against Goldman. In written opening submissions, Doyle alleged that one Goldman colleague repeatedly shouted at him and another “used vile and bullying language” and expletives including at his mid-year review in September 2020.

In his witness statement, Doyle said: “What I found during the course of my employment with Goldman Sachs — and this was borne out by the fact my employment was terminated as a result — is that there wasn’t a culture of transparency and openness . . . Indeed my experience is that rather than raise concerns, staff at Goldman Sachs were expected not to rock the boat.” 

In its written opening arguments, Goldman Sachs vigorously rejected Doyle’s allegations saying he had “made no protected disclosures” and it had investigated his complaints, which related to “largely historic “business as usual” matters.

It claimed that Doyle’s attempt to cast himself as a whistleblower was “a transparent and lamentable effort “to get round the cap on compensation for standard unfair dismissal claims.

The bank also alleged in its opening arguments that Doyle triggered “substantial conflict” with his colleagues “like the proverbial bull in a china shop” and “only raised concerns about whistleblowing when he knew he faced dismissal”. It also “strongly” denied that he had complained of being bullied, though he had repeated opportunities to do so.

Goldman and Doyle declined to comment further on the case.

It is unusual for employment tribunals to be settled midway through a hearing, with the majority of cases settled before the tribunal starts.