Bank cut my bonus because I had a baby, says MP leading City sexism inquiry
Bank cut my bonus because I had a baby, says MP leading City sexism inquiry
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Treasury committee head Harriett Baldwin has revealed how ex-boss at JP Morgan bank cut perk after she returned from maternity leave
The fund manager turned Tory MP fighting sexism in the City
Phillip Inman and Juliette Garside
Sat 4 Nov 2023 07.49 EDT
Last modified on Mon 6 Nov 2023 09.03 EST
The MP leading a parliamentary inquiry into sexism in the City of London has spoken of the discrimination she faced when working in finance, saying her former employer, JP Morgan bank, refused to pay her full bonus after she returned from maternity leave. In an exclusive interview with the Observer, Harriett Baldwin described her experience of bias on pay and inappropriate behaviour by senior managers, as the influential Treasury select committee that she chairs prepared to hear from hedge fund bosses in the next stage of its inquiry into gender barriers in financial services. Baldwin’s inquiry has received widespread attention, not least because it has coincided with the demise of London-based hedge fund Odey Asset Management after allegations of sexual misconduct against its founder, Crispin Odey, which he denies, reportedly spanning decades.
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The evidence on gender barriers gathered by the committee includes written submissions from more than 40 individuals and organisations ranging from big high street banks to Can’t Buy My Silence, the campaign group set up by Zelda Perkins, former assistant to the disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein.
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The inquiry will explore what role companies, the government and regulators should play in combating sexual harassment and misogyny. The committee will evaluate the progress on implementing the recommendations of the previous Treasury committee’s 2018 inquiry into the problem, as well as the impact of the Treasury’s women in finance charter from 2016, whose signatories pledged to work towards gender balance. It has already heard from Helena Morrissey, the former chief executive of Newton Investment Management, who told the inquiry sexual harassment and misogyny are allowed to go unchecked at City companies because women have a “fear factor” over speaking out and do not trust human resource departments.
Lady Morrissey, who gathered evidence from 20 women as chair of the Diversity Project, an initiative in the UK investment and savings industry, told the committee: “Each time where women have escalated what has happened to them, it has made their working lives worse.” Perkins, whose Can’t Buy My Silence group campaigns against non-disclosure agreements , has told the committee in written evidence how their use protects and perpetuates misconduct, allowing abusers to remain in post. Baldwin said her committee also wanted to hear from hedge fund bosses, and was in the process of contacting executives to ask them to attend the next hearing. “We are very keen to have the hedge fund industry representatives in front of our committee. They have a reputation for being not the most diverse part of the financial services sector.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/04/bank-cut-my-bonus-because-i-had-a-baby-says-mp-leading-city-sexism-inquiry
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