They made me feel like a prostitute: Accountant sues top City firm for record £40m for ‘ruining her career’

An employment tribunal is currently hearing a claim for £40m brought by a lady named Mihaela Popa against PriceWaterhouseCooper.

Mihaela Popa, who worked as a forensic accountant in the London office of PriceWaterhouseCooper, alleges that colleagues told her “Eastern Europeans are whores” and asked when she was returning to Romania. Some of her workmates apparently even believed she was a Communist spy for the Romanian secret police. Miss Popa joined PwC’s London office in September 2004, having spent a year at its Chicago office. She has claimed she was promised she could become a £750,000-a-year partner.

She says that racism prevented her from becoming a partner in the firm, which would have earned her at least £500,000 a year plus bonuses. She said the treatment became worse until she went off sick for several months with anxiety and depression before resigning in November 2006. She then joined UBS in December 2006, was made redundant in May 2008, was then hired by Credit Suisse  but again made redundant in December 2008.

Miss Popa lost previous tribunal claims of race discrimination, constructive unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal. She has now launched a record £40 million tribunal claim for victimisation. She says that PriceWaterhouseCooper retaliation against her for her making her previous claims involved sabotaging her future career prospects through its references and adverse influence on her new employers.

PWC says “We believe this new claim is without merit and are confident we will again be found to have acted entirely appropriately.”

Subscribe To Site:

Full Post Feed | Summary Feed | Comments Feed