A pub manager who claimed her boss suggested she was associated with Nazi ideology after she didn’t buy him a coffee has received a payout for unlawful discrimination.
The worker, named by the tribunal as Ms Sinclair, worked at the Old Toll Bar in Glasgow, when she was told by director Ahmed Magdy Soliman “oh yeh, forgot you like white people better”, after he discovered she had bought the drink for a colleague, but not him.
He then added: “How was Germany,” an employment tribunal heard.
The comments were made soon after Mr Soliman, aged 49, had told Ms Sinclair “you look very Aryan with your blue eyes and blond hair”, the tribunal heard.
Ms Sinclair had no connection with Germany and said the remarks suggested she was racist or associated with Nazi ideology, and left her feeling awkward.
Judge Shona McLean ordered Mr Soliman and the company – called More Blacks, More Dogs, More Irish Ltd – to pay Ms Sinclair £2,000 for injured feelings as a result of unlawful discrimination.
In her judgment, she wrote: “The race related remarks were unsolicited. The second respondent [Mr Soliman] appeared to derive satisfaction form the claimant’s discomfort.
“Even if that was not the purpose, viewed objectively it was reasonable in my view to have that effect. As the business owner, his comments on the claimant’s race and appearance placed her in a difficult position. The second comment [over the purchased coffee] caused the claimant to review the first in a more troubling light.”
Four months on from the remarks, the tribunal heard that Mr Soliman asked Ms Sinclair’s line manager when she started working at the company, before she was unexpectedly dismissed over “poor sales performance” shortly before her two-year service in July last year.
Under UK employment law, employees gets a right to statutory redundancy pay after completing two years’ service.
Ms Sinclair was asked to leave on-the-spot and given no payment in lieu of notice, heard the tribunal, which found no evidence of misconduct, while finding Ms Sinclair was a valued member of the team.
Judge MacLean, in her judgment, wrote that the dismissal appeared predetermined to avoid the claimant acquiring statutory rights, concluding it was for an unfair reason.
She ordered the company to pay her £14,475.85 to cover loss of earnings, after hearing Ms Sinclair was on £318.67-a-week, and, despite finding temporary work, continued to suffer financial loss.
The tribunal, which sat in Glasgow on 4 August, did not hear from Mr Soliman, who could not attend due to ill health without providing evidence. Judge MacLean wrote that while Ms Sinclair’s evidence was not contested, she gave it “honestly and in an understated manner”.
