Hayes Hits Back at UM

NEW YORK The legal battle between Interpublic Group's Universal McCann and George Hayes, its former evp, client services, has intensified. Hayes yesterday asked the U.S. District Court in New York to deny UM's request to throw out his age discrimination lawsuit against the agency.In court papers, Hayes denied UM's allegation that he was fired partly due to performance issues that caused the company to lose key accounts such as Nestle and Lowe's. Those so-called performance issues, he argued, were "fiction," created after the fact to help defend against the suit. In court papers, he instead asserted that younger, less qualified staff members blundered and ultimately cost the agency key accounts—yet received promotions anyway.UM's lawyers could not immediately reached for comment. In his filing, Hayes specifically cited Mary Gerzema, then a key executive at UM's New York office, as having played "a major role" in the media shop's unsuccessful defense of the $300 million-plus Coke account in 2003. That business ultimately shifted to Publicis Groupe's MediaVest. "The loss of Coca-Cola caused other clients to question their relationships with UM and many put their accounts up for review, which were then lost after we tried to save the business," Hayes said in his filing. Hayes was terminated by UM after a 30-year career in December 2005, a little over two months after the arrival of new global CEO Nick Brien. Hayes contends in his original lawsuit, filed in May 2006, that Brien was biased against older workers in violation of age discrimination laws. In his filing yesterday, Hayes disputed a number of statements that UM made in its November request for dismissal, including the shop's assertion that former UM COO Murray Dudgeon, and not Brien, first recommended that Hayes be fired. In his brief, Hayes suggested Dudgeon's support for UM's contention that he recommended Hayes' dismissal was tied to a lucrative consulting agreement the agency awarded Dudgeon after he departed earlier this year. "Dudgeon had his own motives with Brien, and may have been willing to agree to anything to resolve his own issues," Hayes said in court papers. "I believe there is reasonable basis to conclude that I was a bargaining chip in the negotiation that led to Murray Dudgeon receiving a consulting agreement." Hayes further asserted that at no point up to the filing of the initial lawsuit did UM raise any performance issues related to his termination. In fact, he said, evidence supports his contention that the agency believed he was making a sizeable contribution, including an April 2005 bonus of $85,000 and a subsequent stock award of $25,000. "The record does not support UM's effort to retroactively blame me" for account losses hurting the shop, he said in court papers. "The truth is that many of the problems UM identified did not relate to me, but rather to the fact that UM didn't have its own P&L, which created staffing problems." Hayes, 55, claimed he was more qualified to fill several senior posts that went to younger staffers, including Gerzema, who was 42 when promoted to president of UM's U.S. operation in early 2006. Hayes also asserted that he was more qualified to head the Latin America region, where he served as acting director in 2005, overseeing the successful $60 million Telefonica pitch. (In the filing, he said Dudgeon told him clients wanted someone with "a little bit of gravitas" to run the region.) After his dismissal, the job went to 32-year-old Carlos Gutierrez. Hayes said e-mails show that agency officials discussed the termination of other 50-plus employees in 2006, including Jean Pool, former head of the shop's local buying unit, and veteran research svp Susan Nathan. (Hayes added that the agency didn't follow through with termination plans out of concern that the firings would lend support to his suit.) Pool left the agency in 2006, the agency said, after turning down an offer to become chief operating officer of sibling unit Magna Global. Nathan departed earlier this year for a research job at Turner Broadcasting. Hayes cites a Nov. 16, 2005 e-mail between UM human resources officials (forwarded to Brien and Dudgeon) that "discussed the termination of Pool's employment, with no indication whatsoever of retirement." A Dec. 1, 2005 e-mail, Hayes said, "describes severance for Susan Nathan, who was in her 50s, but was mysteriously kept as an employee after" the suit was filed.

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Hayes Hits Back at UM

Steve Mcclellan

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