A security officer at Heathrow Airport has been awarded £44,000 for unfair dismissal after he was sacked for showing a ‘racist’ video to a colleague.
Jose Gomes had 21 years’ service with LHR Airports and was elected as chair of the Unite trade union for Terminal 3 in March 2022, taking over the position from Manoj Dadral.
In May 2022, Gomes and some colleagues made a number of complaints about alleged harassment within the union following the election. This was also reported to the police, and later that year Dadral was convicted of harassment.
Dadral was suspended and made subject to disciplinary proceedings, and then submitted two grievances against Gomes and his colleagues. One of these was a “formal complaint of racial discrimination” against Gomes.
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The complaint alleged that Gomes had entered the union room in Terminal 3 and played a video on his phone about “why India is a dirty country”.
It claimed that Gomes said “this is what your country is like” to a room of employees mainly of Indian descent.
Dadral also claimed that Gomes would regularly say: “If you shake an Indian man’s hand, then make sure you count your fingers after”. He described the behaviour as “highly offensive and totally inappropriate”.
After returning from a period of holiday, LHR Airports asked Gomes to a “fact-finding” meeting to establish what had happened.
Gomes admitted to possessing the video, claiming it was “just something I received and forwarded”, adding that it was “not offensive, more educational”.
He also claimed that the handshaking reference and remarks about smell had not been directed at anyone.
He was suspended and an investigation was commissioned. The tribunal heard that the investigation reinforced the idea that there were “rival factions” operating within the union branch at Terminal 3. Dadral was not interviewed.
Chloe Finlay, carrying out the disciplinary hearing following the investigation, concluded that Gomes had shown the video that was racist and offensive and within the “context of a toxic environment”.
His employment was terminated in November 2022. Gomes appealed but the original decision was upheld.
However, the tribunal ruled that “dismissal in a case such as this cannot be an automatic response governed by a list of possible gross misconduct offences”.
Gomes’ previous good track record at the company made it unlikely he would reoffend, it added, although he had been “naive in his actions and his words”.
Heathrow’s disciplinary policy listed a number of offences as gross misconduct but only said these might lead to disciplinary action, not dismissal, the panel pointed out.
“Our view is that the decision to dismiss in such a situation, against 20 years of previously trouble-free service, was outside the range of reasonable responses that was open to Ms Finlay, and that the claimant’s dismissal was unfair,” they said.
The tribunal made a Polkey deduction for contributory fault to the award, adding that “the claimant’s contribution to his dismissal was more than trivial, and we should make the deduction”.
The tribunal ordered LHR Airports to pay Gomes a basic award of £14,200 and a compensatory award of £29,800. It also refused Gomes’ application for reinstatement at the company, saying this could have “considerable prospect for conflict”.
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