A former Royal Mail employee is seeking compensation for race discrimination and unfair dismissal, despite taking more than 18 months off work over a five-year period.
Royal Mail told the Birmingham Employment Tribunal that parcels delivery driver Jivan Sansoy had received a number of warnings before he was sacked in October last year for poor attendance.
Sansoy claims he had taken time off because of the racist attitudes of colleagues, domestic problems, stress and depression. The national postal service denied the race discrimination allegation, and added that it had not always been satisfied with the explanations Sansoy had offered for taking excessive time off and had made strenuous efforts to help him.
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Appearing for Sansoy, Chris Andrew said the former Royal Mail employee had been picked on at work, prompting a race discrimination claim, despite never making a formal complaint.
The tribunal was told that Sansoy had been absent from work from April until October – more than 200 days – in his first year with Royal Mail, and had been off for 114 days on another occasion, along with individual days in between. In all, he had missed 543 days’ work in five years.
