Sacked for “not being German enough” is the claim of a high-flying banker who is suing his former employer to the tune of £10 million.
Reported by The Times, Malcolm Perry, who worked as a senior banker for Dresdner Kleinwort in London, told an employment tribunal that he was sidelined and made redundant as senior Frankfurt-based bankers hatched a secret plot to turn the bank into a German bank. Jobs were given instead, he claims, to bankers who had spent time in Germany and spoke the language fluently.
Perry, who said that he was becoming increasingly concerned about being marginalised during a major restructuring process, was told by another banker that “[they] want to turn it back into a German bank.”
The claimant, who netted £2 million a year, said that he was refused posts that he was “very obviously qualified for” on the grounds that senior management wanted key roles to go to Germans.
Dresdner Kleinwort denies the claims and says that two of the bankers who eventually took over areas that Perry had run were neither German nor German-speakers.
The case continues.
