UBS trader sues employer, claiming ‘stress’ harmed mental health
Al Jazeera
A 35-year veteran of Swiss Bank UBS is seeking $273,000 in damages, claiming he was subjected to a ‘punishing workload’ that damaged his mental health.
A UBS Group AG trader sued his employer over allegations the “toxic” London work environment and “punishing workload” caused his mental health to deteriorate so far he was no longer able to work.
A 35-year veteran at the Swiss bank, Simon Rope, is seeking more than 200,000 pounds ($273,000), for negligence over an anxiety disorder caused by “the stress to which he was subjected in” UBS’s London office, his lawyers alleged in a U.K. lawsuit. Rope has survived at least 17 rounds of redundancies but hasn’t returned to the trading floor since 2018, they said.
The case offers a window into the stressful world of trading, and the mental toll it can have on workers under pressure to drive profits and not make costly mistakes. In recent years, European traders have pushed for shorter days in order to address concerns over work-life balance and the impact on their mental health.
