Former HSBC executive sues bank for £15 million in Employment Tribunal claim

hmctsA former employee of a global bank is suing his former employer for £15 million after he claimed that he was dismissed because of his race and religious beliefs.

HSBC is being sued for £15 million by Habib Kaya Biber, formerly the co-head of the bank’s industrials department, after he alleged that he had been discriminated against by colleagues at the bank and dismissed because of his religion and race.

Mr Biber, who holds dual German and Turkish citizenship and is Muslim, made his claim to the Employment Tribunal after he claimed that he had been treated with “utter disrespect” by HSBC at the termination of his employment. He claims that his employment was terminated in May 2014 because of his religion and race and has stated that HSBC “has not offered a consistent or coherent explanation as to why it sought to remove one of the co-head positions”.

HSBC denies the allegations made by Mr Biber and has alleged that Mr Biber was a “poor performer whose bonus payments and ultimate dismissal were the direct results of his own failure to develop a revenue-rich investment banking business within industrials”. HSBC claimed that Mr Biber’s revenue figures in 2011 and 2012 were low, whilst in 2013 they dropped to a figure of zero despite Mr Biber having a target of $10 million.

The claim continues and the full Employment Tribunal hearing will go ahead at a later date.

Chris Hadrill, a specialist employment solicitor at Redmans, commented: “Employers must take care that, when dismissing employees, they provide full reasons behind the dismissal as well as a sound evidential basis on which to dismiss. A failure to do so can potentially lead to an unfair dismissal and/or a discrimination claim against them in the future, the defending of which can be time-consuming, expensive and stressful.”