English employee told “English people are lazy drunks” sues and wins
Not much. But it’s a win and it appears to be unusual.
However, is it unusual that a case like this appears on the front age of the Telegraph website, or are these cases unusual? Is it that the media have not really reported them or do indigenous Brits simply put up with arrogant big mouthery from non-whites in positions of authority over them?
Worker told ‘English people are lazy drunks’ wins discrimination claim
A transport company employee who was an ethnic minority at his workplace has won a discrimination claim after his colleagues jeered that the English were lazy drunks.
James Heeley, an administrator at Birk Holdings, was repeatedly teased about his nationality by his co-workers, who asked whether he was “still drunk” when he came to the office.
His boss, Gurvinder Singh Birk, was overheard saying English employees are “lazy and only interested in claiming benefits”.
Mr Heeley was one of five white British employees at the company of 16 - making him a “minority”, the employment tribunal in Bury St Edmunds heard.
... Mr Birk was ordered to pay Mr Heeley £2,500 in compensation for injury to feelings, and a further £961.74 for breaching employment law.
Mr Heeley began working at Birk Holdings in Peterborough in October 2017 and was sacked in March 2019 by Mr Birk, who cited concerns about his performance, attendance and time keeping.
The tribunal panel, chaired by Employment Judge Jennifer Bartlett, found that he was subjected to numerous derogatory comments.
Senior employees said “English drivers do drive slowly” and accused Mr Heeley of not working hard because “he’s English”, the tribunal heard.
On one occasion, two colleagues sneered: “Can tell you’re British as you don’t have your coat on. Are you still drunk from last night?”
After Mr Heeley took a few days off sick, an employee said: “Oh, the lazy English worker has decided to come back to work”. The same employee commented: “Lazy English workers are always off sick”.
Mr Birk was said to have told a senior employee not to hire British workers because they “can turn you down easily and claim benefits”.
The tribunal panel agreed that Mr Heeley had suffered race discrimination and harassment.
It concluded: “We consider that the comments are serious such that they create a hostile and/or intimidating environment because they are by a number of reasonably senior individuals, over a period of time, repeated and in a workplace in which the claimant was a minority.
“We do not accept that the fact that he called some of the comments jokes undermines their effect on him. Many extremely unpleasant behaviours can be dressed up as jokes but it is no excuse.”