NEW YORK – A Trinidadian banker here is suing a major United States bank, claiming she was fired because of ethnic tensions.
Shivana Persad, 26, says she was treated like a second-class citizen at JPMorgan Chase’s South Richmond Hill, Queens, New York, branch.
In the lawsuit, Persad said she was insulted after she complained to an unidentified Guyanese manager after witnessing two co-workers having sex near a copy machine in March 2009.
“You Trinis need to mind your own business,” she alleged, her former boss said, in court papers.
Persad also alleged that the bank’s branch manager called Trinidadians “lazy” and “nickel-and-dime workers” and made her work on the Hindu holiday Diwali.
She charged in the lawsuit that Guyanese co-workers got “prized schedules”, while she worked six-day weeks to combat her boss’ prejudices.
“I had a job, and I needed to keep it, especially in this economy,” Persad told reporters. She said she was fired in April 2009, months after she complained to the Human Resources Department that she had not been paid for overtime.
JPMorgan Chase did not return calls for comment. (CMC)
