Culture | EY staff sent to 'belonging' sessions after discrimination claims

Multinational professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY), which is considered within the top four financial companies in the world, has announced that it is now sending staff to what it calls ‘belonging workshops’, following a string of high-profile complaints detailing accounts of discrimination and inappropriate behaviour at the firm.

Last month, news outlets including the BBC, Financial Times and Forbes published reports that identified a case in which a senior transgender employee had left the company citing a consistent string of discrimination from colleagues and senior members of staff.

In a separate case, a junior female employee reported being verbally sexually harassed by a partner at EY whilst another employee in a leadership role was moved to a more senior international role, despite multiple complaints about his conduct including several bullying allegations.

Elsewhere within the firm, workers complained about what they called a ‘utilisation gap’ within the division that meant that employees from BAME backgrounds were overlooked on projects in favour of white staff.