Manager laughing at ‘slapstick’ fall not harassment, tribunal rules

A man who sued his employer for harassment after his manager laughed at him for falling over has lost his case.

Kesarajith Perera fell over after slipping on a patch of oil at The George pub in Harrow in March 2020. His boss, Hesham Badra, laughed in response.

Perera was dismissed from the pub, owned by the Stonegate Pub Company, in October 2020 after failure to produce documentation that showed his right to work in the UK.

He subsequently launched a tribunal claim complaining of racial and religious harassment, with Badra’s laughter at his fall submitted as evidence.

He claimed that his manager had put the oil on the floor deliberately so he would slip, but this was dismissed by the judge as “ridiculous”. He also alleged he had been given a full-time role of cleaning toilets, which was dismissed.

Employment judge David Maxwell, said in his judgment: “Whilst it might be tempting to hope that one colleague would only ever react in a sympathetic way towards the misfortune of another, common experience suggests this is not always the case. The slapstick element of a fall may prompt laughter.”

Judge Maxwell also noted that Perera had “a tendency to jump to conclusions when he encounters misfortune”, an observation further proven by the fact the area that promoted the laughter incident was prone to spillages.

He added that none of the treatment the claimant discussed in the pub harassment claim “had the proscribed purpose or effect”, and that his view of matters was “unreasonable”.

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The tribunal did rule in favour of Perera for unlawful deduction of wages, however, and awarded him £1,426.11. A further payment of £908.91 was given for him for the company’s failure to provide written particulars of employment.

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