NRI
Woman sue Law Society £1 million for damages
for racial and sexual harassmen
London, April 04, 2005
Ram Parkash
A Non-Resident Indian woman has sued the Law Society
£1m for sex and race discrimination that threatens
to plunge the solicitors' governing body into a bitter
internal war.
Simrit Parmar, a policy adviser employed by the Law
Society, accuses senior management of prolonged bullying
and belittling behaviour towards Asian female staff.
Ms Parmar, 37, also alleges that she was encouraged
to bring a complaint against Kamlesh Bahl, the society's
Asian vice-president forced from office after allegations
of bullying in 2000. That case cost the Law Society
of England and Wales an estimated £2.5m and
lasted four and a half years.
In her claim document, Ms Parmar accuses Law Society
management of having a "racist stereotypical
view" of staff. She says that during the Bahl
affair the Law Society developed a "pattern"
of encouraging Asian staff to bring complaints against
the then vice-president.
She alleges: "It is safer and more effective
for it to encourage Asian staff members to falsely
complain against their own race, because that complaint
is less likely to be perceived as racist and to reveal
the underlying hostility of certain white managers."
She also accuses her bosses of encouraging co-workers
to make complaints against her. After an internal
inquiry found the complaints to be unproven, she claims
she was "segregated" from the three members
of staff who brought them.
The Law Society has hired the top employment law
barrister Nicholas Underhill QC to defend the claim,
which opens at an employment tribunal in central London
on Monday. Mr Underhill acted for the City bank Merrill
Lynch when it was sued for a record £7m by Stephanie
Villalba. Ms Villalba lost her equal pay claim but
won her action for unfair dismissal.
Ms Parmar is being represented by Lawrence Davies,
a consultant solicitor with the London-based firm
Imran Khan and Partners.
In her action, Ms Parmar says that one senior member
of staff described Ms Bahl to her as a "typical
Brahmin Übermeister" - a high-caste overlord.
Ms Parmar said she felt "sickened" by this
comment, which she alleges was an "act of direct
race discrimination".
She said that at a party in 2001, the same manager,
who had since left the Society, said Asians were "reliable
little workers, and I was lucky I was not African-Caribbean
because everyone knew they were lazy and had attitude
problems".
Ms Parmar says that when she brought complaints against
members of staff, her managers trivialised them and
suggested she had mental health problems.
Ms Parmar, an adviser on alternative dispute resolution
in family law, is seeking an estimated £1m in
punitive damages. She claims that over her five years
at the Law Society she was racially and sexually discriminated
against, ostracised by co-workers, run down by managers
and denied proper support.
She also alleges that when her father was terminally
ill she was refused compassionate leave. When she
did take time off to care for him in the days before
he died, she was called to a disciplinary meeting
where, she alleges, she was "bullied and harassed
... for my absence".
Yesterday a Law Society spokeswoman said: "An
employee of the Law Society, Simret Parmar, has made
claims alleging disability, race and sex discrimination.
The Society denies these claims and will be defending
them at the employment tribunal."