The colleagues of a man who became “very upset” about his office mug going missing likely felt his response was “out of proportion”, an employment tribunal has found.
A judge ruled that Adeel Habib probably gave his colleagues “reason to believe that he viewed the loss of the mug as stealing” and that this is “likely to have caused some resentment towards him”.
The ruling came in a case brought by Mr Habib against Currys, where he was employed between January and March 2023 as a credit support associate at their office in Poole, Dorset.
Mr Habib accused his former colleagues of “cold-shouldering” him following the dispute over his mug, which he claimed amounted to racial discrimination.
But his claim was dismissed after a hearing in Southampton, with Judge David Hughes saying that Mr Habib was “probably very upset” about his mug and noting that “he can language that is apt to strike others as confrontational, even if he does not intend to be”.
The judge said: “We find that he probably did give his colleagues reason to believe that he viewed the loss of the mug as stealing. We find that this is likely to have caused some resentment towards him.”
He added: “Sad though it is to have to say this, it seems to us to be likely that Mr Habib is, unfortunately, ill-equipped to cope with the nuances of social interaction in the workplace, and lacks the sort of social skills that might have eased tensions that arose around the mug incident.”
Mr Habib also alleged that he had been racially discriminated against in his manager’s decision to deny him five weeks’ of holiday leave to attend weddings in Pakistan, in a request lodged a month after joining the company.
But this was rejected by the tribunal, with the judge finding that “Mr Habib was denied his requested holiday leave on a reasonable application of Currys’ policy and practice”.
A further claim, that he was sexually harassed by a married colleague who left a bottle of Juice Burst on his desk, which Mr Habib considered to have “a sexual connotation”, was also rejected.
However, Mr Habib was awarded three weeks’ additional notice pay, with the tribunal rejecting further claims for arrears of pay and bonus payments.
