Two Muslim women are suing Lloyds Bank (LBP) for allegedly penalizing them over their support for Palestine.
During Israel’s assault on Gaza in May 2021 two LBP employees expressed solidarity with Palestinians within LBP’s company chat portal. The bank launched an investigation over the posts and determined that the women had breached the company’s “professional integrity” policies. They were hit with a final written warning for “gross misconduct” that will permanently stay on their internal record at the bank. LBP also notified the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) about the issue, which means that the incident would show up on background checks potentially conducted by future employers.
The two women (who wish to remain anonymous) are being represented in court by attorneys working in collaboration with the European Legal Support Center (ELSC). In the discrimination lawsuit, they are seeking the removal of the aforementioned sanctions and compensation for the impact of the prejudice. One of the women says she was already denied a new job as a result of the report to the FCA.
“This case is another example of a trend of anti-Palestinian racism which we have been observing in Europe at an institutional level, whether in public bodies or private organizations,” ELSC Advocacy and Communications Manager Alice Garcia told Mondoweiss. “Since the ELSC was founded in 2019, we have documented over 700 incidents of anti-Palestinian racism and have responded to 232 incidents of repression faced by [these] individuals but also by academics, students, journalists, artists, grassroots civil society organizations, Palestinian and European NGOs. This censorship is allowed by restrictive policies such as the implementation of the biased IHRA definition of antisemitism or anti-BDS policies, and delegitimization campaigns amplified by pro-Israel actors. It aims at shielding the Israeli government from accountability and it is very problematic for fundamental rights such as free speech.”
In one of the portal posts, a plaintiff references the double standard applied to Palestine and mentions that other political and social issues were regularly discussed within the company. “What I am finding difficult to understand is that NO ONE in the office has spoken about this issue,” she wrote. “Colleagues come in and talk about their daily lives, football, programmes they watched but NOTHING about this? It baffles me how people
are being ignorant to the matter, and even more frustrating that when there have been issues in the past such as Paris incidents, BLM, LGBTQ etc and all that people have spoken up about it, commented on posts, changed profile pictures to show solidarity etc but why not now? Is it because they feel this is a MUSLIM issue therefore they are exempt?”
These observations turned out to be prescient, as employees were not disciplined for posting about the other topics mentioned by the plaintiff. The bank’s “Palestine Exception” seemingly stems to other aspects of company policy. Amid the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, LBP launched a Race Action Plan to combat discrimination of any form. “As a Group, we’re guided in how we do things by a clear set of values,” said the bank in a statement. “A key part of how we seek to live and breathe these values is to strive to create a fully inclusive environment for all our colleagues, customers and communities, one that is truly representative of modern-day Britain.”
The hearings will occur at the London Central Tribunal Employment offices in June.
The 2021 Israeli offensive that the two women posted about killed more than 259 Palestinians, including an estimated 66 children.
Follow the money, and you will see why Lloyds acted unprofessionally and unreasonably.