Citibank in the dock for firing ‘distracting’ woman

NEW YORK - Citibank is facing an unusual lawsuit in which a woman executive says she was fired last year because her bosses thought she was “too distracting” for male colleagues and supervisors.

“She was punished because her male bosses couldn’t handle their libidos,” alleges the lawsuit by Debrahlee Lorenzana, 33, against CEO Vikram Pandit’s Citibank in a Manhattan court here.

The brunette says she was dressing professionally, but her male bosses found her too steamy and fired her, according to the New York Post.

“Everything I wore was professional, things everybody wears in corporate America… The way they looked at what I wore was very disappointing,” the tabloid quoted the attractive brunette, who joined the bank as a business banking officer in 2008, as saying in her lawsuit.

She says soon she after she joined the bank, her seniors subjected her to “inappropriate and sexist comments” about her dress and appearance.

A single mother, Lorenzana says she was told not to wear “certain items of clothing, in particular, turtleneck tops, pencil skirts, fitted business suits, or other properly tailored clothing”.

“In blatantly discriminatory fashion, (she) plaintiff was advised that as a result of the shape of her figure, such clothes were purportedly ‘too distracting’ for her male colleagues and supervisors to bear”.

Lorenzana says she was subjected to discrimination as “other female colleagues wore similar professional attire” and some even dressed far more provocatively, according to the Post.

But her supervisors said other female colleagues didn’t turn them on “as their general unattractiveness rendered moot their sartorial choices, unlike plaintiff”.

Lorenzana alleges that she was also told that “as a result of her tall stature, coupled with her curvaceous figure”, she should not wear classic high-heeled business shoes, as this purportedly drew attention to her body in a manner that was upsetting to her easily distracted male managers.

According to Lorenzana’s lawyer, she filed a formal complaint to the human resources department in May last year, and sought a transfer. Though she got the transfer in July, her harassment didn’t stop on various pretexts, including her failure to recruit new customers. In August, she was sacked by the bank, according to the Post.

Reacting to the lawsuit, Citibank has said, “We believe this lawsuit is without merit and we will defend against it vigorously.”