UNCOMMON LAW: Is bank marketing sexual harassment?
A wealthy client, who must remain nameless in view of professional confidentiality rules, recently sought our advice at Assizes as to whether he could sue some banks for sexual harassment by their staff. These banks had been sending provocatively dressed female marketing staff to his office to procure accounts. Our client believes that the law should provide succour to him, and secure him against the unwanted, thinly disguised advances of these ladies, for two reasons. In the first place, it was obvious that the marketing approaches were loaded with sexual innuendo. All the marketing staff were female. If there was no sexual undertone, why no male marketing staff? A man can explain banking services and facilities as well as a woman, if not better. Besides, the girls wore short skirts and revealed more cleavage than our client was prepared for during a busy workweek. They also tended to lean towards our client with exaggerated proximity while expatiating on the finer points of credit. S
