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Journalism of Courage
LONDON, FEB 2: A Jewish man quit a major London brokerage firm after he was told to dress up as Adolf Hitler as punishment for tardiness, according to reports.
Irish and the Welsh employees faced similar punishment in what the firm claims was just lighthearted fun.
Traders working for the firm placed a skullcap on top of their television sets whenever a Jew appeared on screen, according to testimony before a British industrial tribunal.
The bond and currency broker Tullett and Tokyo Liberty (TTL) permitted the practice as part of a policy designed to relieve stress and create a more productive atmosphere on its trading floor, the hearing was told.
To be accepted into the company culture, employees had to endure insults and even Don Fancy dress.
But the policy backfired when a Jewish trader lost patience after being asked to dress up as Adolf Hitler, said a report yesterday in The Daily Telegraph. Laurent Weinberger, 33, whose grandmother died in Auschwitz, is suing TTL for racial discrimination and constructive dismissal after leaving his 185,000-dollar-a-year job.
Makbool Javaid, Weinberger’s solicitor, told the tribunal that his client had accepted comments such as “Jew boy” and “Yiddo” in six years with the company but drew the line on May 12 last year when a package arrived from mad world fancy dress. He refused to wear the costume and then complained.
A few days later Weinberger was told that he was being transferred from the new issue desk to the dollar trading desk. He refused to accept the demotion and pay cut and resigned on may 21.
Javaid said, “It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It’s like handing a Ku Klux Klan uniform to a black person and saying `put that on’.
The tribunal heard that TTL had adopted the costume policy as a supposedly lighthearted way of punishing traders who were late for work on Fridays. Offenders had, among other things, been forced to dress as as fairies and pixies.
