By Kirstin Ridley
LONDON (Reuters) – A former Barclays banker alleges he was undermined, harassed and denied appropriate compensation and promotion because of his Cameroonian background after raising concerns about how the bank constructed some financial models.
Louis Samnick, 44, who left Barclays in 2021 after a decade at the bank, is the second of three Black bankers to testify in a London tribunal after bringing a joint claim in which the men allege they faced racial discrimination and are demanding a combined 52.8 million pounds ($65.8 million) in compensation.
Barclays, which is defending the case, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment in response to Samnick’s allegation that he faced racial hostility after making whistleblower reports in 2012 and 2014.
Samnick, a former vice president in the bank’s credit risk model validation team, told the East London Employment Tribunal on Monday that a former colleague had twice asked him when he was “going back to my country” and often commented about his grasp of English.
He alleges that he was not supported by managers in the same way his non-Black colleagues were and, when a new manager was appointed in 2016, was instead frozen out and sidelined, which violated his dignity and created an intimidating, hostile, degrading environment.
Claire McCann, a lawyer for Barclays, told the court Samnick had made serious, new allegations of direct racist complaints during his oral testimony “on the hoof” that...
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