Managers conversing in another language in a disciplinary meeting amounted to race discrimination and harassment.
The facts
Newlands Care Angus Ltd was a provider of care services and Ms Kellington-Craword was employed as a carer. The company owners were Polish and the majority of the managers were Polish or Polish-speakers.
The claim
The claimant raised several claims in the Employment Tribunal about her treatment including age and sex discrimination, harassment (on grounds of race), victimisation and detriment and unfair dismissal. The majority of which were not upheld. However, her claim for direct race discrimination and harassment was upheld and the respondent ordered to pay compensation for injury to feelings, in relation to a disciplinary meeting at which the managers present conversed with one another in Polish. The result was that the claimant was left feeling excluded from full participation in the meeting and disadvantaged by not being able to understand what was being discussed about her, or about the proceedings at hand.
Tribunal’s observations
The tribunal accepted that, unlike other interactions, this crossed the threshold by being something that the claimant did reasonably believe to have violated her dignity or created an intimidating, degrading or humiliating environment for her (components for a claim of harassment). She was outnumbered and the only one who could not understand anything being said in Polish. Given the importance of the meeting and the sensitivity of the matters under discussion it was reasonable that she felt intimidated and humiliated. The tribunal did not find that the conduct complained of had this as its purpose - in other words, those speaking Polish did not intend to harass the claimant by doing so – but it did have that effect and it was reasonable for the claimant to feel that way.
Key takeaways
This may be a useful cautionary tale in workplaces where there are multiple nationalities working alongside each other. It was not the fact of different languages being used in the workplace that was the issue, rather the specific circumstances in which it occurred, being in a highly sensitive meeting where it was important for the employee to be treated transparently.
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