Punitive damages may be highest ever employment discrimination verdict cost for a company in the US

New York, NY, USA (GenevaLunch) – Novartis, Basel-based pharmaceuticals company, has been ordered by a judge in Manhattan to pay $250 million in punitive damages to 5,600 women in an American division of the company. Earlier this week Novartis was told to pay $2.5 million in compensation to a much smaller group. The two payments follow a guilty verdict for the multinational on charges of gender discrimination,failling to promote women and paying them less. The award represents 2.6 percent of 2009 revenues for the division.

Links to other sites: Business Week/Bloomberg, Le Temps (Fre), Los Angeles Times

Title: Riccardo Piunti: The multinational and its implications for Switzerland
Location: Casino de Montbenon, Salon bleu du Grand Café Allée Ernest-Ansermet 3, Lausanne
Link out: Click here
Description: Piunti is CEO of Agip. The conference is held in French, on the role and logic of the multinational, how it fits in Switzerland.
Start Time: 17:00
Date: 16 Nov 2009
End Time: 20:30

Winterthur, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss engineering multinational Sulzer saw its orders for the first half of 2009 fall to CHF556.2 million, a drop of  29.2 percent compared to the same period in 2008. The decrease is an adjusted figure with the nominal fall at 31.1 percent. The company says orders will remain low for 2009 as a result of the global economic slump and it expect to finish the year with a “substantially lower order intake compared to the high level of 2008.”