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Major racial harassment case won by Citizens Advice client |
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A hospital porter helped by his local Citizens Advice Bureau was today awarded £35,700 after winning a major racial harassment and unfair dismissal case against his employer, a contractor for the NHS. The award was announced today (Wednesday 13 January) by Judge Manley at Watford Employment Tribunal. The award came after Mr Elon De Oliveira (41), who worked as a porter for Synergy PLC, an NHS contractor, won his claim for racial harassment and unfair dismissal against his employer despite being told,“nobody is going to believe you". The amount awarded was based on evidence heard at Watford Employment Tribunal in May 2009 which found that Mr De Oliveira had been racially harassed on an almost daily basis over a two-year period by a father and son manager and supervisor. The Tribunal heard that Mr De Oliveira was pushed around whilst being verbally abused and his pay was stopped as part of the racial harassment. During the proceedings evidence emerged that Mr De Oliveira had complained to his managers about the harassment but was told to drop it. He then told the area manager he would seek legal advice, but was told that he would be a ‘fool to go down that route.” Synergy denied any wrong-doing and instructed a large city solicitors’ firm to defend the case and threatened substantial legal costs against him if he did not accept a payment of £4,000 to withdraw his claim. His Citizens Advice Bureau advised Mr De Oliveira that his claim was strong and urged him not to be bullied into withdrawing it. Laurence Wilson, principal solicitor at Kensington and Chelsea CAB Service, who represented Mr De Oliveira, said,
As a result, the NHS Trust in this case is now reviewing their contract with Synergy and, in the interim, has requested that they produce an action plan setting out how it will avoid any recurrence of this situation, including introducing equality training and anti-harassment policies. Public bodies have a legal duty to eliminate discrimination among staff and sub-contractors. Citizens Advice Bureaux play a vital role in helping clientschallenge discrimination and harassment. Last year CAB advisers dealt with over 20,000 employment discrimination enquiries, an 18%increase compared with the previous year. Notes to editors:
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