Lloyds Trader Claims He Was Fired For Whistleblowing

A tribunal case concerning unfair dismissal due to alleged whistleblowing is underway against Lloyds Banking Group, as a former foreign trader has accused the bank of forcing him into redundancy due to his revealing details of a currency trade with Tesco supermarket.

Claimant, Paul Carlier, has stated at a London employment tribunal that he was made redundant from his £175,000 a year job due to him making a number of protected disclosures and having “challenged the business over various practices”.

Mr Carlier, who is representing himself at the ongoing tribunal, asserts that his actions in September 2014 led him to be targeted by the bank’s head of foreign exchange product, Anders Henrikson.

However, Mr Henrikson told the tribunal that Mr Carlier’s dismissal was due to his having missed agreed trading targets by generating £557,000 for Lloyds rather than the £1.7 million pounds he was expected to make.

During his cross examination Mr Henrikson also painted an unflattering portrait of Mr Carlier’s character, saying that the emails he sent to banking officials once he heard of his redundancy were “frequently offensive in tone and content”. The mails were at first blocked by the bank’s firewall due of their explicit nature.

There were also revelations that have further called Mr Carlier’s reputation into question, including Lloyds producing documents that show they had discovered Mr Carlier had a number of county court judgements against him when being hired by the bank in 2011.

Mr Henrikson also dismissed the idea of Mr Carlier being a whistleblower on the receiving end of persecution due to having spoken out, claiming that his statements were standard within the banking sector: “Paul was vocal in expressing his opinions on the spot [foreign exchange] desk but I did not regard him as a whistleblower”.

Mr Carlier is yet to give his own evidence at the tribunal to respond to these claims.
Reacting to the ongoing tribunal case, a Lloyds spokesperson released a statement saying that “As the employment tribunal is ongoing, it would be inappropriate for us to comment in detail, other than to say that the allegations are without merit and we are defending them vigorously.”

This case has come at a bad time for Lloyds. Last year the bank had to suspend seven employees when a court ruled that it must pay £226m due to its involvement in offences that involve rigging of interest rates.

The hearing will continue later this month.

Since the banking crisis of the early 21st century the number of bankers being made redundant by major international banks has increased, and Lloyds is no different. This has led to a surge in legal action from former employers who claim employment laws have been violated as a result.

Earlier this week it was revealed that four current traders who worked for Citigroup Inc have begun legal action against their former employer on the grounds of unfair dismissal after they were made redundant during an investigation into foreign-exchange rate rigging.