A Woman Claims Sexist Behaviour At An Investment Bank Drove Her Out Of A Job
Dalal Belghiti is suing her former employer for £3.5 million, claiming that male colleagues would “bid” on women and boast about sex with colleagues.
UPDATE
Since this article was published, the claims that it describes by Dalal Belghiti have been withdrawn.
City trader Dalal Belghiti is suing investment bank Jefferies, saying that “women were seen as mere sex objects” at the firm where she was senior vice president of the international credit team.
Belghiti told an employment tribunal in London on Monday that male colleagues would talk about women using trader jargon, saying "bid" for those they considered attractive and "offer only" for those they did not.
In her witness statement she described being subject to persistent sexist behaviour including one male colleague showing her pictures of his ex-girlfriend in her underwear and boasting about having sex with a female former senior analyst at the bank.
Belghiti also recalled a male colleague who “left a condom on his desk, which elicited laughter and joking from our colleagues,” the Financial Times reported.
“As the only woman in the vicinity, to hear women objectified as commodities was distressing and degrading,” she said.
She said that she was excluded from "male only" skiing trips with clients, because, according to The Guardian, they "consisted of drinking and sexual activity with women".
Belghiti also described being made to feel "uncomfortable" and "angry" when a male colleague invited four female friends to a dinner in 2013, who proceeded to "dance very provocatively", as well as "touch the men suggestively, and to take their hands and press them against their bodies in a sexual manner”. She also recalled the male colleague and one of the women "sucking each other's fingers", The Telegraph reported.
The male colleague, Belghiti said, was "best-known for his off-colour remarks and inappropriate behaviour" and felt that he spoke to her "in a way he would never have done if speaking to a male colleague".
She also alleged that managing director of sales Paul Grimsey called her home country of Morocco "shit" and said: "I felt there was a particular quality to his behaviour towards me that was lacking in how he treated the men.
"I quickly realised that he viewed and treated other women with the same disrespect."
Before arriving at Jefferies in 2010, Belghiti worked for American investment bank Lehman Brothers until its 2008 collapse, which she followed with a position at Swedish bank Nordea from 2009. Her salary at Jefferies rose from £90,000 to £175,000 in 2012, but she claims she was "frozen out" by her boss Guy Cornelius and missed out on bonuses after being assigned clients that "weren't revenue-generating accounts", according to her lawyer, Caspar Glyn QC.
He added: "The respondent's case is that the claimant wasn't experienced in difficult markets, she didn't try hard enough and she could have made money from these accounts."
Richard Khaleel, a spokesperson for Jefferies, said: “Her allegations are meritless and we expect to prevail at the tribunal.” James Laddie QC, the lawyer representing the investment bank told her: “You figured that Jefferies would simply pay you off rather than fight the case, didn’t you?”
Belghiti resigned from the firm in March 2014 after bringing a claim against Jefferies. She said she had "suffered mentally" as a result of her time at the bank and, according to The Guardian, was advised by her GP to take five weeks off due to anxiety.
She said: "It's been a long road to recovery and I was incredibly depressed for a long time after I left Jefferies.
"I do not know if I will be able to work in finance again."
The tribunal continues.