Banker had to ask to go to the toilet, tribunal told

A senior banker was "reprimanded" by her boss for taking lunch hours while pregnant and she was forced to ask permission when she went to the lavatory, a tribunal heard yesterday.

Andrea Madarassy, 38, who insists her case will highlight the plight of working mothers in the City, was giving evidence before the Central London Employment Tribunal.

The mother-of-three, who once had a £70,000-a-year job with the Japanese investment bank Nomura International, told the hearing her manager shouted at her regularly, using "abusive, intimidating and threatening" behaviour.

In her 120-page statement, Ms Madarassy claimed the sexual discrimination worsened when she became pregnant with her third child in the summer of 2000 and she was increasingly sidelined. She is claiming sexual discrimination, unfair dismissal and victimisation, all of which the company denies.

The former banker said she felt "humiliated and embarrassed", having to ask permission every time she wanted to go to the lavatory after a written rule, circulated in September 2000, ordered employees to report every time they left their desks.

It coincided with the beginning of her morning sickness. She added: "I was often questioned in an accusing manner by my manager on my return from the bathroom."

Nomura, she said, had a "dictatorial culture" where "the role of women in this game was to work as Cinderella on behalf of a greedy male-dominated group.

"Women were simply told what to do and their views did not count."

From the day she joined the equity capitals market department, she said, she was discriminated against. She believed her manager, Michael Boardman, was concerned that Japanese members of staff would be unhappy he hired a woman as a senior banker.

He wrote "patronising, insulting and sexually biased" comments about her after a review and her tasks became more "menial" when she became pregnant. Upon returning from maternity leave, she was even asked to do secretarial duties.

Frequently, she said, she was excluded from crucial client meetings and internal discussions, and was blamed for "other people's shortcomings". Another director, Takeo Sumino, reprimanded her on several occasions for not skipping lunch.

Ms Madarassy, who was born in Hungary, worked at various international banks before coming to Britain and joining Nomura in January 2000 – the only woman in a team of 12. Within eight months of her daughter Ilona's birth in November 2001 Ms Madarassy, from Ashtead, Surrey, was made redundant.

Under cross-examination by Paul Goulding, for Nomura, Ms Madarassy admitted she did not file any complaint of sexual discrimination until last December. The barrister suggested that some of her colleagues had complained of her poor-quality work and that she often became "overly defensive" when criticised.

The case continues.