A former London-based Goldman Sachs banker alleges he was unfairly dismissed with a woeful lack of proper procedures after whistleblowing on 10 occasions and was forced to deal with vile and bullying language Thomas Doyle, the former EMEA head of synthetic swap sales, was fired in 2021 with no warning letter or proper performance management and was told by a court document seen by Reuters on Monday.
Doyle, who said he joined Goldman in December 2018 with an exemplary market reputation, named Goldman Sachs International and four senior Goldman bankers in a lawsuit being heard in the Central London employment tribunal. Employment suits in London are relatively rarely brought to trial, as the vast majority of them are settled before they come to court.
A Goldman Sachs spokeswoman dismissed the allegations as unfounded and said the case would be resolutely contested Doyle, who appeared in court on crutches with a leg in a cast.
The banker alleges that he was dismissed in 2021 after receiving a $218,223 bonus after raising a series of regulatory red flags with senior and compliance colleagues because he thought the bank had failed to treat customers fairly and provide suitable advice.
Doyle alleges that he and others were repeatedly shouted at, that a managing partner told him he was fabricating information when he complained that he and his team were being excluded from work and that he was sworn at five times in one meeting at least.
In the filing, Doyle alleges that the managing partner did not think he would have used expletives in a management meeting. The filing alleged that the manager accepted that Doyle had to stop behaving like a child, using another expletive.
By October 2020, Doyle's colleagues had been sending texts about whether he should be subject to a so-called Strategic Resource Assessment SRA, a Goldman headcount reduction exercise that tends to take place annually, according to the filings.
A senior manager emailed Doyle the following January and said he was disruptive and that his employment would be terminated. Goldman called him into a meeting after he was told his employment was effectively over, Doyle alleges.
He was given a formal notice in April 2021 and was dismissed in July.
The tribunal hearing is scheduled to last 13 days and will determine whether the bank is liable. If Doyle wins this stage of his case, a further hearing will determine the level of damages.