Latest news with #Stepchuk
Toronto Sun
09-07-2025
- Business
- Toronto Sun
Ex-banker fired for 'serious misconduct' after office affair files discrimination suit
Ex-Merrill Lynch director dismissed for threatening female subordinate while wife was pregnant Stanislav Stepchuk is suing American investment bank Merrill Lynch for sex discrimination. Photo by Stanislav Stepchuk / LinkedIn A former banker in England is suing for sex discrimination after he was dismissed from his job for having an affair with a younger colleague while his wife was pregnant. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Stanislav Stepchuk was working as a director at American investment bank Merrill Lynch in London when he began messaging the underling in January 2023. Days later, he sent the woman an unsolicited 'intimate photograph' of himself. According to Britain's Daily Mail , Stepchuk told an employment tribunal they texted each other 'sexually explicit and highly personal' exchanges on WhatsApp. In one message, the woman — referred in employment court as Colleague A — revealed she was a virgin who wasn't experienced in bed. During the hearing, the employment tribunal heard they began a relationship and were intimate twice. But by August 2023, Stepchuk said he tried to end the tryst after learning his wife was pregnant. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Read More Stepchuk claimed the woman responded to his request with 'hostility, taunts and threats' and that if she revealed the relationship to the bank it would affect his wife, her pregnancy, his child, his parents and possibly put his life in danger. Despite Stepchuk's allegations, an internal review by the bank found he threatened her and they fired him for engaging in an office romance. 'He was terminated for serious misconduct, including acting inappropriately while pursuing sexual relations with a junior colleague and threatening her for complaining to our human resources team,' a Merrill Lynch spokesperson told the outlet. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'The bank went through a robust disciplinary process before dismissing. His claims were thoroughly investigated and found to have absolutely no merit.' Stepchuk, now a father of two, filed a lawsuit against Merrill Lynch alleging sex discrimination and harassment, age discrimination and unfair dismissal. He accused the bank of not fairly investigating his grievance. RECOMMENDED VIDEO Stepchuk's identity became public knowledge during a preliminary hearing after an employment judge was asked to rule on whether their names would be kept private. The judge decided that revealing her name was 'irrelevant' to the dispute, while Stepchuk's identity couldn't be protected because he publicly brought the action to the court. 'I consider the expectation of privacy lower in an extramarital affair at work, where the risk of discovery is acknowledged by (Mr. Stepchuk) and Colleague A in the WhatsApp messages,' Judge Christabel McCooey said. 'However, as a third party to these proceedings, I do not find it foreseeable that discussion of her sexual inexperience would be before a public employment tribunal.' Toronto & GTA Olympics Columnists Toronto Maple Leafs Basketball
Metro
09-07-2025
- Metro
Banker sues over sacking after cheating on his pregnant wife with colleague
A senior banker who cheated on his pregnant wife with a junior colleague is suing for sex discrimination after he was sacked over the affair. Stanislav Stepchuk, who was a director at American investment bank Merrill Lynch, sent an unsolicited X-rated photo to the younger woman just four days after they began messaging each other. The pair then entered a relationship, which lasted several months, before Stepchuk ended it when he found out his wife was pregnant. An employee tribunal heard that Stepchuk claimed the junior colleague responded with 'hostility', 'taunts' and 'threats' that his life may be in danger. But an internal disciplinary process found that the father-of-two had been the one to threaten her before the bank sacked him for 'acting inappropriately' by embarking on the affair. Now, Stepchuk is suing Merrill Lynch International for sex discrimination and harassment, age discrimination, and unfair dismissal. Details of the affair emerged during a preliminary hearing to determine if Stepchuk or his junior colleague were entitled to anonymity. Stepchuk's plea to keep his name a secret to 'protect his family' was denied by the judge, but the woman was granted anonymity. The tribunal, held in Central London, heard that Stepchuk became a director at the financial institution in March 2018, before beginning to exchange 'explicit and personal' messages with the colleague in January 2023. In these messages, she told him she was a virgin who lacked sexual experience. Just four days into their communications, he sent her an unsolicited 'intimate photograph' of himself. The tribunal heard that the pair were sexually intimate on two occasions, during which Stepchuk was married. After breaking off the affair upon learning of his wife's pregnancy, Stepchuk alleged the colleague said she would disclose the relationship to the bank and threatened 'consequences' for his wife, pregnancy, his child and his parents. Merrill Lynch International said its HR team had spoken to the woman as early as March 2023 about sexual harassment by Stepchuk. In August, she raised a formal grievance alleging that she had been sexually harassed and that Stepchuk had threatened her when she said she was going to HR. More Trending In January 2024, the banker was dismissed following a disciplinary procedure which found he had 'acted inappropriately' in pursuing a sexual relationship with the colleague and had threatened her. However, they did not uphold the complaint of sexual harassment, finding the relationship had been consensual. Stepchuk is now claiming he was discriminated against by a failure to investigate his grievance. He also says the bank's approach was 'tainted' by the assumption that he was the perpetrator as a more senior man, but Merrill Lynch says his dismissal was 'proper'. A full hearing to determine the outcome of Stepchuk's case will be held later this month. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: First picture of boy, 12, killed after fire ripped through block of flats MORE: NHS blood-carrying drones plan branded crazy by Londoners MORE: Monzo fined £21,000,000 after customers claim to live at 10 Downing Street
Business Journals
01-05-2025
- Automotive
- Business Journals
Ford using AI, 3D printing at Cleveland engine plant for Expedition
Story Highlights Cleveland Engine Plant 1 in Brook Park is providing the EcoBoost V6 engines for Ford's 2025 Ford Expedition. The plant has the capacity to produce 440,000 EcoBoost V6 and 343,000 EcoBoost I4 engines annually. Cleveland Engine Plant 1 is Ford's last remaining facility in Cleveland. Ford Motor Co. is using artificial intelligence and other advanced manufacturing technologies at its Cleveland engine plant to support the relaunch of its flagship sport utility vehicle. While the Michigan-based automaker is celebrating the 2025 Ford Expedition at its Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville this week, the company also is calling attention to its Cleveland Engine Plant 1, located in Brook Park, which is providing the EcoBoost V6 engines for the Kentucky-built vehicles. GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY Find Local Events Near You Connect with a community of local professionals. Explore All Events Ford (NYSE: F) has about 1.6 million square feet of production space at the engine plant's 365-acre site in Brook Park, Gordon Stepchuk, assistant plant manager, told the Cleveland Business Journal during a recent tour. About 95% of that space is being used around the clock, Stepchuk said. The Cleveland engine plant has the capacity to make about 440,000 EcoBoost V6 engines and 343,000 EcoBoost I4 engines each year and employs roughly 2,000 hourly and salaried workers, he said. The V6 engines go into the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs, the Ford F-150 and Raptor pickup trucks, and the Ford Transit Van, Stepchuk said. The I4 engines go into the Ford Ranger truck and the Ford Bronco and Explorer SUVs, Stepchuk said. expand From left, Phil Bigos, Lean Six Sigma master black belt; Phil Brooks, team leader; and Eric Blankmeier, area manager, show off a completed EcoBoost V6 engine at Ford's Cleveland Engine Plant 1 in Brook Park, Ohio. Mary Vanac | Cleveland Business Journal The plant uses a combination of manual workstations and robots to produce its engines. Computer-controlled robots do some of the work of installing parts and conveying the engines to 13 work stations. "We do a lot of in-process testing to make sure that our quality is top-notch," said Eric Blankmeier, an area manager at the plant. "So nearly each team will have a series of ... test processes or in-series processes to test quality." Cleveland Engine Plant 1 is using advanced manufacturing technologies, such as 3D printing, at its on-site innovation center to produce prototypes, tools and parts no longer sold commercially to solve problems on the manufacturing floor. expand A robot conveys an engine assembly along tracks in Ford's Cleveland Engine Plant 1 in Brook Park, Ohio. Mary Vanac | Cleveland Business Journal The plant also is piloting a mobile AI vision (MAIV) system that inspects the valves and seats in the V6 engines shipped to Kentucky for the redesigned Expedition and sends the results to a mobile phone app. "This is our first application [of a MAIV system] here at the Cleveland Engine plant," said Chris Newell, a manufacturing engineer. "One of the really cool things about it with innovation and the new technology, it gives us immediate feedback of a pass-fail system." The MAIV system also provides a "massive cost save," Newell said. "For some of the other camera applications that we put in, they would cost maybe four or five times the amount just for one application," he said. "So we're able to improve our quality in more areas at less cost." The development path of Ford's 3D-printed tools Bobby Stacey, Team 12 leader at the plant, noticed that his teammates were having trouble seating small plastic fasteners called fir trees in the EcoBoost V6 engines they were building. Stacey asked Tom Williams, who mans the Cleveland Engine Plant Innovation Lab, for help. "They couldn't seat it in ergonomically," said Phil Bigos, Lean Six Sigma master black belt (meaning he's an expert in process improvement). "They were complaining about pain in their fingers during installation." So Williams and his colleague, Bryan Trego, created a 3D-printed plastic tool in their innovation lab to help the line workers install the fir trees properly without hurting their fingers. expand Close-up of a 3D-printed tool designed and manufactured in Ford's Cleveland Engine Plant Innovation Center. Mary Vanac | Cleveland Business Journal Creating 3D tools and parts at the plant's innovation center rather than sending them out for manufacture saves time and money, Bigos said. "It's a lot of collaboration with employees on the floor, and we can turn ideas around in hours," he said. "It's great having them in-house to be able to turn it around really quick, really driving innovation." On the manufacturing floor, Stacey uses the tool to install a fir tree near the end of the engine plant's manufacturing line. expand Bobby Stacey, team leader, uses a 3D-printed tool to press a small plastic fastener called a fir tree into a V6 EcoBoost engine at Ford's Cleveland Engine Plant 1 in Brook Park, Ohio. Mary Vanac | Cleveland Business Journal Cleveland Engine Plant 1 is the last Ford facility standing in the Cleveland area Opened in 1952, Ford's No. 1 engine plant was one of two in Brook Park, along with an iron casting plant in Brook Park and stamping plants in Brook Park and nearby Walton Hills. An aluminum casting plant was added to the Brook Park site in 2000 but shut down in 2002, according to In 1978, engine plants No. 1 and No. 2 made engines for more than half of Ford's domestic cars, according to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. However, a recession in the auto industry reduced employment at the engine complex from 16,000 in 1978 to 11,000 in 1980, the encyclopedia states. Cleveland Engine 2 was closed in 2012 and later sold to developers. In 2021, Weston Inc., the DiGeronimo Cos. and Scannell Properties broke ground for the Forward Innovation West Center on the site of Ford's former engine and casting plant, but that land now is the proposed site of a roofed stadium for the Cleveland Browns. Ford's stampling plants and casting plants in Brook Park and Walton Hills also have been closed and razed. Sign up for the Business Journal's free daily newsletter to receive the latest business news impacting Cleveland.
