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Worker sacked after racial slurs
SACKED: Terry McKenzie successfully claimed he had suffered racial discrimination
A man who was accused of being a drug dealer because he had bought a new car has won compensation.
An employment tribunal ruled Terry McKenzie suffered discrimination when he was dismissed by Altrincham-based Rullion Engineering Personnel Ltd.
He was on a placement with Alstom Engineering at the time.
The tribunal also ruled Mr McKenzie, who is of Afro-Caribbean origin, was further discriminated against when Rullion failed to investigate his formal complaint relating to racial mistreatment while on the same placement.
Mr McKenzie, 40, from Ashton, told the tribunal he was treated less fairly than other staff at Alstom when he was asked to do jobs that no one else wanted to do, such as cleaning up.
In another incident, Mr McKenzie said he was accused of being a drug dealer because he had bought a new car.
The tribunal ruled this was discriminatory because it stereotyped his racial origin.
In a third incident, two workers at Alstom who had been disciplined by management for using Facebook at work wrongly blamed Mr McKenzie for getting them into trouble.
Even though he knew nothing about the Facebook incident, one of the two workers urged the other to smash Mr McKenzie’s windscreen, the hearing was told.
The tribunal also heard Mr McKenzie wrote to Rullion management setting out his concerns, but nothing was done about them.
Two months later, on April 22, last year, Mr McKenzie alleged he was spoken to disrespectfully and condescendingly by another worker at Alstom.
Mr McKenzie asked the other worker not to do this and the following day he was dismissed by Rullion.
Mr McKenzie again wrote formally to Rullion’s management, but again his concerns were not investigated, the tribunal heard.
Mr McKenzie said: “I was very upset at the way I was treated and just felt really frustrated that nobody was listening to me when I raised my concerns and that my complaints weren’t investigated. I always gave the job 100 per cent, but was treated with a total lack of respect.”
The level of compensation Mr McKenzie is to receive will be decided at a future hearing of the tribunal.
Rullion intends to appeal.
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Comments
There are 16 comments to this article
Page 1 of 2
Liberation
Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 09:19 AMsteve10. Further to my earlier post. Terry knows exactly why he was dismissed and so do I. Fortunately for him Rullion made a complete hash of the dismisal procedure but that is it. RACISM had absolutely NOTHING to do with it but a fair proportion of his case revolved around the subject. That is my only personal objection..
Liberation
Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 08:41 AMsteve10.Hard feelings about what? I liked Terry and like I said, good luck to him.My objection is that " The tribunal ruled this was discriminatory because it steroetyped his racial origin " and the fact that some of the details that appeared in print are just not true or exagerated . If Rullion didn't follow correct procedures then fine but what the hell has Terrys race got to do with all this ?
kezzer
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 11:14 PMI believe the issue here is that this man was sacked.....his superiors took no action to a written complaint...not good enough!! Colonel,I hear ya,it does happen,but I believe compo isnt an issue here,lets hear the outcome.
Crag
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 11:01 PMTruefacts - When you sober up, you probably should read my post again (or get an adult to read it to you). You seem to have misunderstood.
TRUEFACTS
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 10:21 PMCrag; Jon Venables, Robert Thompson, Ian Huntley, Rosemary West, Fred West, Ian Brady, Myra Hindley, Beverly, Allit. This is a vile list of names of both men, women and children, convicted child killers and child rapist, you will find that they are also stereo types, how ever none of them are of Afro-Caribbean decent and as for your so called ‘crime –stats’ well you may also find that your so called BLACKS are rarely convicted of this kind of despicable atrocities. No crime is acceptable, but Bloody Hell!
TRUEFACTS
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 10:20 PMCrag; Jon Venables, Robert Thompson, Ian Huntley, Rosemary West, Fred West, Ian Brady, Myra Hindley, Beverly, Allit. This is a vile list of names of both men, women and children, convicted child killers and child rapist, you will find that they are also stereo types, how ever none of them are of Afro-Caribbean decent and as for your so called ‘crime –stats’ well you may also find that your so called BLACKS are rarely convicted of this kind of despicable atrocities. No crime is acceptable, but Bloody Hell!
bignorm
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 10:13 PMpeople like TheColonel should be taken to one side and shown the errors of thier racist ways, I, like other posters, deplore your comments and find them very distastful. we now live in a multi-cultural society and if you cant ''hack it'' then i suggest you find somewhere else to live thats if another country would take you, there is no place in britain for racist jokes or comments and people like you should keep them to yourselves, you are a dispicable person who gives the rest of the population a bad name
Crag
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 07:37 PMTK - ok, you get your crime stats, and you prove that blacks are disproportionately responsible for some types of crime, asians for others, and whites for others again - then what? The Home Office already do this kind of profiling, so I'm not sure what your point is. As for this case, an impartial tribunal has conclusively found that this chap was discriminated against. In which case, well done for pushing your claim, there is no room for discrimination at work, and you deserve whatever compensation you're awarded.
t k
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 07:26 PMCononel that is a horrible nasty thing to say and you for one should be ashamed!
t k
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 07:26 PMCononel that is a horrible nasty thing to say and you for one should be ashamed!
t k
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 07:25 PMI think it time that real figures where produced that would clear this debate up once and for all. true crime figures for who has done what. You know your age, your postcode, your previous schooling, your parents take home pay and your COLOUR. The fact of the matter is certain communities play the race card when its clear to them and everybody else that men with big posh cars that dont work are CLEARLY UP TO SOMETHING! Its not hard to understand but the sterotyping of many people is usually often correct. Thats not to say that in this case that is correct but i for one would be interested to know where this guy got his money for a brand new car.
steve10
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 06:22 PMColonel how on earth can you comment on something you clearly know nothing about! If he didnt like his job so much he would of been glad to get the sack! not gone out and spent his own money taking this to a tribunal! I know Terry personally and know for a fact he worked 50 hours plus a week for this company making the said agency a lot of money in fees, all he expected was a reason as to why his contract was terminated of which he still hasnt had, also unless you are of ethnic background how on earth do you know how such comments make people feel, a drain on society I suggest you find yourself something more interesting to do at 1.24pm than commenting on things you clearly know nothing about. Liberation laughing all the way to the bank this article is about somebody loosing there job for what reason he clearly still does not know!!!!! NOT about making money!!!! Seems like theres a bit of hard feeling there!!!!
steve10
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 06:21 PMColonel how on earth can you comment on something you clearly know nothing about! If he didnt like his job so much he would of been glad to get the sack! not gone out and spent his own money taking this to a tribunal! I know Terry personally and know for a fact he worked 50 hours plus a week for this company making the said agency a lot of money in fees, all he expected was a reason as to why his contract was terminated of which he still hasnt had, also unless you are of ethnic background how on earth do you know how such comments make people feel, a drain on society I suggest you find yourself something more interesting to do at 1.24pm than commenting on things you clearly know nothing about. Liberation laughing all the way to the bank this article is about somebody loosing there job for what reason he clearly still does not know!!!!! NOT about making money!!!! Seems like theres a bit of hard feeling there!!!!
Liberation
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 02:30 PMI can assure all readers and posters ( because I was present during all of this ) that although elements of this are slightly true, the rest is absolute drivell.TheColonel has hit on it completely correctly and I can state two things for sure : 1 : There is no rascism whatsoever at Alstom 2 : Mr McKenzie was NEVER asked to undertake any duties that myself andor my fellow workers don't regularly perform on a daily basis. Good luck to Terry for playing the "race" card and getting away with it ( as he's laughing all the way to the bank ) but it's a sad inditement of the state of this country today. In addition, I'd like to add that whoever was responsible for defending this claim must have the brains of a village idiot because a modicum of research would have ensured that this case never reached a tribunal.
TheColonel
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 01:24 PMI can't believe this man got a penny. The drug dealer thing was clearly intended as a joke, this man just probably didn't like his job. He shouldn't get a damned thing and should be ashamed of himself. How on earth does a drug dealer comment stereotype his racial origin? Are all drug dealers black? His other allegations seem like a lot of hearsay. I'm sorry but playing the "ethnic minority" card to get compensation is the lowest of the low. What a pathetic man. Mr McKenzie, you are a drain on society.
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