A former Bank Hapoalim BM executive assistant claims she was fired after complaining that her boss, the CEO of the New York branch of Israel’s largest bank, attended in-person meetings and a holiday party while visibly sick with the Covid-19 virus.
(Bloomberg) — A former Bank Hapoalim BM executive assistant claims she was fired after complaining that her boss, the CEO of the New York branch of Israel’s largest bank, attended in-person meetings and a holiday party while visibly sick with the Covid-19 virus.
The assistant, Sol Back, sued the bank and Chief Executive Officer Gil Karni Friday for discrimination claiming she was fired months after filing a confidential complaint about Karni’s behavior in December 2021.
Back said Karni insisted on holding in-person meetings while sick, “seeking to project an image of ‘strength’ as the new CEO,” and attended the party while she and others urged him to stay home. As a result, Back says in her lawsuit, that she and more than two dozen other employees got sick, with one requiring hospitalization.
Back said she was “infuriated and terrified” by Karni’s behavior, especially since her two children and 80-year-old mother were living with her. She said she lodged a confidential complaint with the bank under its whistleblower process. Just months later, she received a “scathing review” from Karni and was terminated – while five other male executives who complained openly about his behavior weren’t disciplined.
“In response to this criticism, BHI sought to destroy the career of just one of the complainants – the female Ms. Back. Having been named as an ‘MVP’ employee days before her complaint, Ms. Back was now seen as a pesky nuisance to executive bigwigs,” Back’s lawyers wrote in the complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan.
Bank Hapoalim’s US division didn’t immediately respond to an email requesting comment on the suit.
Back was hired in 2016 as an executive assistant to the branch’s former CEO. Karni joined Bank Hapoalim in 2020 from Bank Leumi Le-Israel BM.
The case is Back v Bank Hapoalim BM, 23-cv-2040, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
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