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Sacked woman banker alleges discrimination

ABU DHABI — A local woman has accused the HSBC Bank, Sharjah, of terminating her services without reason and on grounds of discrimination.

“I was fired without any valid reason. The bank was biased against me and terminated my services because of a trivial issue over a credit card,” S.Z., the national complainant, who joined the HSBC bank a year ago, said.

She told Khaleej Times that her problem began with her acquiring the bank’s credit card with a limit of Dh17,000 shortly after which, she was hospitalised in a critical condition.

“I was absent from work for some time. When I regained health and was fit, I returned to work and made sure that I paid the due amount in cash. I also told the lady in-charge of our department about the credit card so as to clear the issue with the management,” she said.

The bank, however, decided to terminate her services after two months for “hiding the credit card issue from the management”.

“They did not provide me with any valid reason for the termination, except saying that they did not have any information about me having a credit card, and that I had tried to cheat against the bank rules,” she said.

“I am fully aware of the system in the bank. No staff member can lie about having a credit card because every single detail is fed into the system,” she said, adding that a colleague had faced a similar problem earlier, but the management let the matter go by.

“This is very discriminative attitude. It is absolutely unfair because I love my job and was intending to carry on in the same profession,” she said.

S.Z. lodged a complaint with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs against the bank.

“Labour authorities said they couldn’t do anything about the termination, but have assured me that they would safeguard my financial rights. I thought of taking up the case to court, but unfortunately there is no compensation law in the country,” she said.