Article content
(Bloomberg) — Royal Bank of Canada’s former chief financial officer is suing for wrongful dismissal, arguing the bank made a “devastating” error when it fired her over a personal relationship with a co-worker — and denying that the two were romantic partners.
Nadine Ahn filed the legal action in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, saying she suffered “palpable reputational harm” and “public humiliation” when the bank sacked her in April. She’s asking for nearly C$50 million ($36 million) in pay and damages.
Article content
RBC said on April 5 it had terminated Ahn for violating its code of conduct because she had been involved in an “undisclosed close personal relationship with another employee which led to preferential treatment of the employee including promotion and compensation increases.”
In her lawsuit, Ahn said she was summoned to a meeting on the morning of April 5 and blindsided by questions about her relationship with Ken Mason, who worked in the bank’s corporate treasury group. The two were merely friends, she said in court documents.
At that meeting, “RBC’s investigator accused Ms. Ahn of providing Mr. Mason with preferential treatment and insinuated that they were having an affair,” according to her statement of claim. “Ms. Ahn pleads that RBC’s allegations are patently false.”
RBC’s code didn’t require Ahn to disclose a workplace friendship, the document says — and in any event, “her friendship with Mr. Mason was not concealed from RBC in any way.”
Representatives for Royal Bank didn’t reply to requests for comment.
Mason also filed suit against Canada’s largest bank. His statement of claim says the bank “ambushed Ken with a discriminatory and inappropriate/unreasonable workplace investigation meeting” that was “unfair, biased and procedurally flawed.”
Article content
Mason, who wasn’t named by Royal Bank in the original statement announcing Ahn’s departure, was promoted to a vice-president role in the corporate treasury department in November 2023.
His lawsuit, which claims more than C$20 million in pay and damages, asserts that if he and Ahn were of the same gender, Royal Bank would not have investigated their relationship.
“RBC opted to make an example of Ken and Ahn by wrongly publicly shaming them in order to project moral righteousness, appearing to swiftly investigate and punish perceived corruption,” the court filing claims.
“The clear insinuation of the RBC Statement was that Ken and Ahn had had an extramarital affair and that Ken received career advancement and financial benefits as a result. This insinuation was false and defamatory.”
—With assistance from Matthew Monks.
Share this article in your social network
Source link
