'Sexist Nomura bank bosses called breasts honkers and said women should be at home cleaning floors'

Published on Tuesday 3 November 2009 21:09

TWO female City high-flyers who claim they were hounded out of their jobs by sexist Japanese bosses are each suing a leading investment bank for £1.5 million.

Maureen Murphy, 30, alleged a woman trader at the Nomura bank had to endure her breasts being referred to as "honkers" during a meeting.

She said one male colleague claimed women "belong at home cleaning the floors", while another man allegedly said the key to cheating on wives was "not getting caught".

The action has been brought by Ms Murphy and Anna Francis, 37, who worked in Asian equities sales at Lehman Brothers in Canary Wharf in London.

Ms Francis was a director earning 250,000 a year, and Ms Murphy a senior analyst on 55,000.

When Lehmans collapsed in September last year, the pair moved to Nomura and expected equally prominent roles.

Ms Francis said existing clients placed multi-million-pound orders with Nomura on condition that she remained their primary contact.

But their new Japanese bosses withheld work and axed the pair within weeks because they were female and non-Japanese, the women allege.

Their lawyer, Michael Duggan, told a London employment tribunal yesterday: "This organisation is institutionally racist and sexist in the way it behaves."

Each woman is suing Nomura for sex and race discrimination and unfair dismissal. Ms Murphy also alleges sexual harassment. They are each seeking 1.5m in compensation for loss of earnings and injury to feelings.

Nomura denies the allegations and insists the women each lost their jobs as part of a fair redundancy process.

In legal papers submitted to the tribunal, Ms Murphy, who is half American and half German, said she had been ridiculed at Nomura for her American accent. She claimed it had been "mocked through imitation".

Ms Murphy, from Islington, London, alleged her clients were described in "unusual and unacceptable ways". One Dutch trader was referred to as a "weirdo Euro client", she said.

She added that during a business meeting, one male client had said to one of her colleagues: "Oh, you don't have your honkers out today, I see."

Ms Murphy said she was "surprised" male colleagues present did not make it clear such behaviour was unacceptable.

She also claimed she was excluded from clients and marginalised before being made redundant in March this year.

Giving evidence to the tribunal, Ms Francis, of Paddington, London,

said there was "obvious hostility" from Nomura staff when her Lehmans team moved to the Japanese bank's City offices for fear their roles would be usurped.

Ms Francis, who is originally from New Zealand, said that during a conference call with up to 1,000 of her global peers, a male colleague humiliated her by saying: "Don't listen to her. She is just a Kiwi."

She said her new Japanese bosses had shown "remarkable disregard" for her clients' wishes to retain her as their primary sales contact. After being denied clients, one male colleague allegedly admitted her treatment involved "every 'ism' in the book" but said "this was how it worked at Nomura".

The case continues.

SEXISM IN CITY

OTHER landmark cases have included:

&#149 Sian Heard and Sian Fellows, both ex-partners at City firm Sinclair Roche & Temperley, won a combined 7 million in damages in 2003.

The tribunal heard that, at one meeting, it was agreed candidates for a senior job in the Shanghai office should be "preferably married, no children, white male".

Share analyst Julie Bower was awarded 1.4m in 2002 after a tribunal found that she had been forced out of her job at Schroder Securities.

The hearing was told Ms Bower's bonus was 25,000 for 1998. Two male colleagues earned 650,000 and 440,000.

&#149 Stephanie Villalba, the former head of Merrill Lynch's European private client business, lost a 7.5 million damages claim in 2005 – and was forced to pay the bank 1 million in legal costs.