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Episode details

Radio 4,30 Apr 2015,28 mins,

Sexism in the City

The Report
Contains language which some may find offensive.

Available for over a year

City banker, Svetlana Lokhova, is awarded a £3 million payout for sexual harassment at work. Her former employer, Sberbank CIB (UK), is appealing the amount it has to pay. An employment tribunal ordered the compensation after finding that Svetlana's line manager at the bank spread vicious lies to colleagues and clients that she was a Class A drug user, ruining her career in finance and causing her extreme mental illness. The bank says the incidents against Svetlana were isolated and unrepresentative of its working environment. It insists they are an equal opportunities employer and have taken steps to ensure it doesn't happen again. In her first interview since the judgment, Svetlana tells Simon Cox how she discovered the extent of her line manager's campaign against her, her efforts to resolve the problem and explains why, despite the huge compensation, there are no winners in this case. Talking to others whose claims have reached an employment tribunal, Simon investigates how common such cases are and why they continue to happen, despite laws and policies designed to prevent it. Producer: Sally Abrahams Researcher: James Melley

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