A UBS graduate who alleges she was raped by her boss is suing the Swiss bank in British court for its handling of episode.
A female graduate who worked for UBS until last year is taking the bank to court over her alleged rape by another banker at the Swiss firm in 2017, according to a press statement from her lawyers.
The woman charges gender harassment, sex discrimination, victimization, and damages from the alleged rape as well as a separate, earlier harassment by another UBS banker. She also asserts that she was disadvantaged by disclosing more than she needed to in an investigation into the rape, only to be denied access to an outside law firm's findings on UBS' handling of the matter.
Hostile Environment?
The escalation of the dispute between the woman, who also raised a criminal complaint with British police, and UBS couldn't come at a worse time for the bank. The «Financial Times» this week published accounts of female UBS bankers who said they were systematically disadvantaged at bonus time after having children.
A spokesman for the bank said UBS wouldn't comment on individual claims ahead of the legal proceedings, which will be heard at a London employment tribunal.
«An independent investigation into the allegations made by the former UBS employee concluded that UBS made no fundamental errors», the spokesman said. «Recommendations were made for improvement and we are implementing these changes.»
«Petrified» on Trading Floor
The graduate describes being «petrified» of walking across the trading floor for fear of crossing paths with her alleged rapist. She says she used fire escapes and stairwells to enter and leave the building, as well as toilets and kitchens on different floors in order to avoid him.
She also describes the alleged harassment by another UBS banker at a team dinner, where she was groped and later humiliated publicly over it. UBS is been under pressure over the matter for months: The victim has slammed UBS’ handling of the case as «flawed» and said the outside law firm, Freshfields, effectively whitewashed the bank.
The bank poached Cicilia Wan, an human resources heavyweight from J.P. Morgan, as group-wide head of employee relations two months ago, in large part to help deal with the fallout from the woman's accusations.
