HSBC lost its appeal against a decision by a court to reinstate a claim brought against it by a tribunal alleging that they discriminated against a prospective candidate for a position in senior sales.
The Court of Appeal has ruled that Carmen Chevalier Firescu’s case, in which she applied to work at the bank from 2018 to 2021, will be sent to a separate tribunal for a decision.
Chevalier Firescu learned in September that she was unsuccessful for a particular role. She continued to search for employment at the bank, but failed to find a position.
She claimed her application was denied because she had sued Barclays Bank in the past for sexism, which had affected her prospects for a job with HSBC.
Chevalier Firescu received a settlement of significant value from Barclays, after being made redundant while on maternity leave.
She filed two claims with the tribunal against HSBC – one in November 2020, alleging race and sex victimisation and discrimination by a manager. The second claim was in May 2021, claiming that she had “blacklisted” HSBC as well as received unfavourable “informal references” from her managers in London.
Chevalier Firescu said that in September 2020 she met a colleague who informed her that HSBC had not hired her because “her former boss at Barclays had given negative feedback.”
She was told that she would have difficulty finding a job in the future because senior managers from different banks in her area of work – derivatives – all knew each other.
In her claim, she also claims that a HSBC Manager used sexist stereotypes to describe as a confident and successful woman.
In June 2021, her claim was dismissed due to the fact that it was out of time. She appealed.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal in February 2024 upheld the appeal, stating that the initial hearing was wrongly directed by law when it struck out one of her claims as they had not yet been brought to the tribunal at the time of preliminary hearing. The Employment Appeal Tribunal also determined that the race discrimination complaint was filed in due time.
HSBC appealed to the Court of Appeal in October of this year to stop the case being remitted. They continued to claim that Chevalier Firescu’s claims were out of date, but the appeal was rejected.
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