Wandsworth Council has been hit with a bill for £26,210 after
being found guilty of race discrimination against former employee
Kelvin Warner, 31. UNISON took up Mr WarnerÕs case after he
was wrongly accused of assaulting colleagues on four different
occasions and dismissed from his job as a housing benefits officer.
In reality he had simply bumped into two colleagues when walking
down a narrow corridor and on the other occasions had been
leaning over to get some stationery and had raised his arm to get
out of a colleagueÕs way.
An employment tribunal found that KelvinÕs dismissal was an act of
racial discrimination and today awarded him over £26,000 for loss
of earnings and injury to feelings. The original tribunal found that
he had been Òstereotyped as an aggressive, violent black manÓ
and that Òthe investigations into the allegation against him were
carried out with a view to dismissing him and not in an objective
way and this was due to his raceÓ.
Dave Prentis General Secretary of UNISON said:
ÒWandsworth Council were guilty of a shocking injustice when they
sacked Kelvin Warner. UNISON is committed to rooting out racial
discrimination in the workplace and I hope that the judgement
today will make the council review their procedures and their
attitudes and act as a warning to other employerÕs.
ÒKelvin is a young man and these allegations were extremely
distressing for him as well as potentially very damaging to his
future career. I hope that after todayÕs award he will be allowed to
put this behind him and get on with his life.Ó
This is the second time in 5 months that Wandsworth Council have
been found guilty of race discrimination and damages awarded
against them. In May 2004 Sarbani Muzumdar, a senior
administrator and UNISON branch secretary, was dismissed for
failing to carry out security checks before leaving the office for the
day. The tribunal found that Ms Muzumdar received less
favourable treatment when compared to her white colleagues and
dismissing her was an act of racial discrimination – she was
awarded £84,000.
Mr Warner had worked for Wandsworth council since 1998 and
was sacked in 2002.
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