Kentucky Fried Racism

The Sheffield Star reports an award of £2500 to a Manager at KFC who having complained about not being invited to a meeting was told "Maybe its because I'm being racist to a black woman". She complained and was not interviewed and appears to have been suspended without pay while the investigation took place. Another case for the "How not to" file.

Duty to make reasonable adjustments

In Routledge v TRW Systems a worker became sick with sleep-deprivation based depression after working alternate day/night shifts. He was advised by his GP to cease workihg nights so that he could get his body back into a normal pattern. The Tribunal decided his bosses had discriminated against him by faiiling to make a reasonable adjustment ie by not offering him a full time day job. No figures in the report on the award so watch this space.

Don't shoot the messenger...

In Chris Martin (not that one) v Parkam Food Group a Tribunal has found that a gay man who complained about graffiti in the work toilets which was abusive to him was entitled to resign and claim dismissal under the 2003 Equality Regulations because of the employers failure to deal with his complaints about it properly. 3 months after starting work he found a crude sexual drawing in the men’s toilets, in black marker pen with his name next to it. He complained; no action was taken; he wrote asking why not. The words “Chris Arse Martin” were then added to the graffiti. The company placed a warning notice in the toilets relating to graffiti but not to homophobic behaviour. He was suspended but the report does not say why. He resigned claiming constructive dismissal.
As an aside the Dewsbury Today reports this as a landmark case. Whenever you see this sloppy cliche ignore it - it usually means some pressure group is at work feeding text to lazy journalists.