[nasional_list] [ppiindia] Dresdner sued for $1.4bn in sex discrimination case
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- Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 09:24:22 +0100
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Dresdner sued for $1.4bn in sex discrimination case
· Six women executives claim abusive treatment
· Allegations without merit says investment bank
David Teather in New York
Tuesday January 10, 2006
The Guardian
Six female employees of the investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein
filed a $1.4bn (£793m) sexual discrimination lawsuit yesterday, claiming unfair
and abusive treatment. The suit, believed to be the biggest of its kind, is the
latest in a growing number of legal challenges exposing the dark side of the
clubby world of the City and Wall Street.
According to the suit women are denied top jobs at Dresdner's London and New
York offices, are paid less and are made to work in a hostile environment. In
lurid detail, it claims that male colleagues would boast of strip club visits,
bring prostitutes to the office and repeatedly subject female workers to coarse
remarks.
Women were hired as "eye candy" and one was referred to as the "Pamela Anderson
of trading", the suit said.
The firm is part of Germany's Dresdner Bank, the banking arm of Allianz
Holding.
The suit was filed in a US district court in Manhattan. "Although we live in
2006, the 'glass ceiling' is alive and well at this German investment bank,
where women are treated as second-class citizens," it read. Several Wall Street
banks have been forced to make payouts to female employees. Morgan Stanley
agreed to pay $54m to settle discrimination charges filed against it in July
2004 on behalf of a former bond trader and 340 other women.
Perhaps wanting to avoid a costly repeat of that episode, Morgan Stanley fired
four male employees last week after they accompanied a client to a strip club
in New York.
Last April UBS, Europe's biggest bank, agreed to pay $29m to Laura Zubulake,
who had worked on its Asian equities sales desk in the US, one of the biggest
discrimination awards to an individual on record. At the time, she encouraged
other women on Wall Street suffering abusive behaviour to speak out, no matter
how tough it was to do so. Four women filed a case against Smith Barney, a part
of Citigroup, last year alleging they were denied promotions and were paid less
than male colleagues.
The suit against Dresdner contains a slew of statistics to back its claim of
discrimination. It notes, for instance, that only about 1% of women in the
capital markets division are managing directors while 15% of men hold that
position. It says the lack of women in senior positions contributes to a
"pervasive discriminatory culture" and includes a litany of anecdotal evidence.
One plaintiff, Jyoti Ruta, works in the firm's capital markets division in New
York. She alleges she was put under pressure by a supervisor and colleague to
leave a dinner celebrating the closure of a large deal, so the male clients and
bank employees could visit a strip club.
Another plaintiff, Katherine Smith, a director in equity sales trading in
London, says she was subjected to vulgar remarks from her boss, who simply
laughed when she objected. During a work lunch to welcome a new person to the
firm, her boss allegedly referred to her as the "Pamela Anderson of trading", a
reference to the former Baywatch actor.
A vice-president of corporate communications in New York, Maria Rubashkina,
says she was aware of a male managing director who routinely brought
prostitutes to the office during lunch hour. Kathleen Treglia, a vice-president
of fixed income in New York, says salesmen on her desk openly commented that
they hired females in junior positions because they wanted "eye candy", and
they were unabashed in recounting visits to strip clubs. The suit alleges the
bank looked the other way when senior executives had relationships with junior
members of staff.
The other two plaintiffs are Joanne Hart, a director of investor relations in
New York and Traci Holt, a vice-president in the structured finance group in
New York.
In a statement, Dresdner said it intends to defend itself against the suit. The
company, it added, "fully complies with all applicable employment-related laws
and is confident that any claims to the contrary are without merit".
A report by the American securities industry association said last year that
more than 70% of all investment bankers, traders and brokers in management
positions in the US were white men. Few women have reached the very top on Wall
Street or in the City. One exception is London Stock Exchange boss Clara Furse.
Sallie Krawcheck, chief financial officer at Citigroup, is arguably the most
powerful woman in American finance.
In Britain, sex discrimination cases against banks have met with less success.
The most high-profile failure was that of Stephanie Villalba, a former Merrill
Lynch executive, whose £7.5m claim was thrown out in December 2004. Julie
Bower, dismissed as an analyst by Schroder Securities in London is among those
who have won payouts. A note from her boss said she "had cancer, been a pain,
now pregnant". She received £1.4m.
In 2000 Kay Swinburne launched a claim against Deutsche Bank in the UK after
being called a "bit of skirt" and being denied promotion. She reportedly
settled for £1m.
Sexual discrimination: case histories
Last April, Europe's largest bank, UBS, was forced to pay $29m (£15.5m) in
damages to a former employee who complained of sexual discrimination.
In July 2004, the Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley paid $54m (£30m) to settle a
discrimination suit brought by the US employment commission on behalf of a
former bond trader and 340 other women.
In April 2004, another bank, Merrill Lynch, was ordered to pay $2.2m (£1.2m) in
damages to Hydie Sumner, a female broker at its San Antonio office, who claimed
sexual discrimination. Ms Sumner also won a promotion. In recent years, the
bank has had to pay out more than $100m (nearly £52m) in settlements to 900
female claimants.
In June 2002, Julie Bower who was dismissed as a City analyst at Schroder
Salomon Smith Barney, was awarded £1.4m in damages. A note from her boss has
summed up her career as: "Had cancer, been a pain, now pregnant".
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