Victim of Anti-English Workplace Abuse Receives Substantial Damages

A certain amount of workplace banter may be tolerated, but every sensible employer is aware that it may be the thin end of a wedge leading to unlawful discrimination. In a case on point, an English lorry driver who suffered wounding verbal abuse after taking a job north of the border was awarded…

Jun 29, 2021

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A certain amount of workplace banter may be tolerated, but every sensible employer is aware that it may be the thin end of a wedge leading to unlawful discrimination. In a case on point, an English lorry driver who suffered wounding verbal abuse after taking a job north of the border was awarded substantial compensation.

The man’s line manager did not like him and referred to him in demeaning and foul-mouthed terms by reference to his nationality. During a football tournament, he was informed that he, like the England team, would soon be on a bus back to England. The manager also remarked that, when Scotland gained independence, he would have to go home, meaning return to England.

After he launched proceedings, an Employment Tribunal found that he had suffered discriminatory harassment on grounds of his nationality. His unfair dismissal claim was also upheld on the basis that an investigation into alleged misconduct on his part was inadequate. His former employer was ordered to pay him £13,306 in compensation, including £12,000 for injury to his feelings.

Lost Your Job Due to the Pandemic? You May Have Been Unfairly Dismissed

If you are amongst the cohort of workers who have been made redundant in the wake of the pandemic and feel that you have been treated unfairly, you should contact a solicitor without delay. In one case, a bar manager who was sacked without notice received thousands of pounds in compensation. After several months on furlough, the 58-year-old man, who had been employed at a hotel for six years, was asked to return to work to prepare for reopening. A few weeks later, however, he received a letter…

‘Secular Atheism’ a Philosophical Belief Worthy of Human Rights Protection

It is a fundamental feature of any democratic society that anyone can freely express their philosophical beliefs, even if others may find them offensive. An Employment Tribunal (ET) powerfully made that point in the case of a train conductor who was sacked after venting his secular atheist views on social media. In welcoming the reopening of pubs at the end of a COVID-19 lockdown, the man wrote an online post urging people not to let their way of life ‘become some sort of Muslim alcohol-free…

Service Charges Dispute Focuses on Report of ‘Intolerable’ Fire Risk

Tenants are only obliged to pay service charges that have been reasonably incurred. That principle was the focus of a guideline case concerning two apartment blocks which, according to an expert report, posed an intolerable fire risk. Previous fire inspections of the blocks had uncovered no serious problems so that the report, which found combustible materials in their external walls, came as a bolt from the blue. The landlord’s response was to place a 24-hour waking watch on the blocks as an…