A black security manager who left his job after being the ‘victim of continuous bullying and racism’ – including being called a ‘slave’ – has been awarded £360,700 at an employment tribunal.
The claimant, Mr Assan, who is of African descent, began working for Wilson James Security, at Cavendish Square, London, in 2007. He was transferred by TUPE to the respondent, Vigilant Security, in 2010 and promoted soon after to site controller, and again to security manager in 2018.
The tribunal found a “striking imbalance” between the racial profiles of Vigilant’s security guards , who were mainly ethnic minorities, and managers who were almost exclusively white. Director of operations, Mr Rampe, told the panel that real efforts have been made to redress this imbalance, but admitted they had not succeeded.
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By letter in April 2022, Assan resigned with immediate effect, making the general case that he was the victim of continuous bullying and racism dating back to 2011.
The tribunal considered no fewer than 63 alleged incidents of direct race discrimination, race-related harassment, and discrimination arising from disability and victimisation.
In June 2011, a white chief engineer for a contractor on the site, made a comment in the security office in front of others, referring to Assan as his “slave”.
The panel said: “This extraordinary remark was apparently intended to be humorous and was delivered in a jocular manner. Not surprisingly, the claimant was embarrassed and offended.”
The same year, another incident included a colleague making a Nazi salute while shouting “Heil Hitler”. In 2012, Rampe asked Assan, where he had learned his English, something the tribunal found was materially influenced by his race.
In 2015, “Mr X” referred to some Eastern European visitors as “stupid foreigners”. A complaint was eventually upheld and, seemingly at the behest of Rampe, Mr X was disciplined, receiving a first and final written warning.
The tribunal found that Assan suffered an “obvious detriment” when his promotion application in 2016 was ignored, and that his race was, at the very least, a material factor.
The tribunal concluded that most of his claims failed as acts capable of amounting to harassment. Of those which survived, all but two failed because they were not shown to rest on conduct “related to” race or because they were presented out of time, meaning the tribunal had no jurisdiction to consider them.
The judge said: “In our judgment, [Rampe’s] overtly race-based treatment of the claimant is more than sufficient to shift the burden to the respondent to disprove discrimination. That burden is not discharged.”
The judgment added: “There were certainly race-based incidents at several points in the long story. But our focus must be upon the dismissal and what precipitated the resignation through which it was effected… We are satisfied to a high standard that the treatment which caused the claimant to resign amounted to a series of acts of victimisation.”
It added “Plainly, the respondent’s treatment of the claimant on 31 January 2022 in calling him into a ‘disciplinary investigation meeting’ without warning, suspending him and sending him a list of unparticularised allegations of gross misconduct constituted detrimental treatment.”
The tribunal determined that, in respect of the successful claims for victimisation and unfair dismissal, Vigilant Security shall pay Assan £360,700, comprising past and future losses, injury to feeling, personal injury, a basic unfair dismissal award, interest, a 17.5% Acas uplift and grossing up for tax.
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