NAB says there’s no male-female pay disparity as it continues its markets team court fight

The banking major has refined its defence in a looming court fight with its former head of repo trading, Dikele Diawara.

NAB has doubled down on its defence against its former head of repo trading.

National Australia Bank has doubled down on its defence against its former head of repo trading, Dikele Diawara, in an attempt to discredit her claims she was paid less than her male peers because she was a black woman of French background.

Ms Diawara, who launched court action against NAB in April last year, alleges she was consistently underpaid and mistreated over several years at the bank, and claimed there was a “boys’ club” culture in the bank’s markets team.

In its amended defence, NAB has attempted to push back on Ms Diawara’s new claims as the two sides prepare for a likely courtroom clash.

Ms Diawara has sought to argue NAB consistently underpaid her over several years while she first worked in London and later in Sydney.

The bank has amended its defence to claim Ms Diawara’s claims around “pay, incentives and other employment benefits”, and that they are “vague and lacking in proper particulars of what is alleged to have been provided”. It alleges they fail to detail the nature of the case it has to meet at trial.

Ms Diawara claims men who worked similar or lower positions than her were paid as much as $150,000 a year more than her base pay.

In her amended statement of claim, Ms Diawara reveals demanding a pay rise from NAB head of global repo David Bateman after finding out two men in similar roles were earning more than $130,000 a year more than her.

NAB notes the examples are “not comparable, the same, or not materially different”, as her colleagues “did not hold comparable role requirements including in regard to the size complexity of the books they were responsible for”.

The bank goes on to claim some of these former colleagues were paid more as they were “not based in the same geographic location and therefore were operating within different financial markets”.

NAB head of repo trading Dikele Diawara.

Ms Diawara claims from 2017 she repeatedly attempted to raise with NAB’s markets team management that she was allegedly being underpaid but was not given a pay rise until 2019.

Ms Diawara claims when she was given a pay rise, it was without backpay and did not compensate her for the time she worked in the role while men were getting paid more than her.

But NAB notes in its amended defence, Ms Diawara was “not entitled to backpay” and the increase to her earnings “was not an admission that the applicant had previously been remunerated differently to her male peers due to her sex”.

In a recent court clash, Ms Diawara’s lawyers noted she would seek to press for discovery in a bid to reveal pay packets among NAB’s markets team as the former repo trader assembled evidence for her case.

NAB and Ms Diawara have been locked in their court clash for more than a year now, and an attempt to mediate the dispute in September last year broke down.

The bank has repeatedly denied her allegations, however NAB did commission a cultural review that interrogated the work culture within the markets team.

The Australian has previously reported management in the markets team had instructed staff to submit false responses to NAB’s satisfaction surveys.

NAB said its review of the markets team culture found it to be “friendly, inclusive, fair, caring and supportive”.

NAB has also moved to replace its longstanding executive of markets, Drew Bradford, who announced on Monday he would quit the bank after 12 years for matters unrelated to Ms Diawara’s case.

NAB said Mr Bradford had indicated he would leave the bank on April 28 and had plans to pursue business interests in Web3.

Originally published as NAB says there’s no male-female pay disparity as it continues its markets team court fight