Paul Lipscombe
Ex-employee accused distributor of encouraging a culture of racist harassment
Exertis may have to pay £6.6 million to former employee Kieran Sidhu who has won a case against the Basingstoke IT and mobile distributor for racial discrimination, harassment, constructive dismissal, and breach of contract.
If successful it will be the biggest award ever granted by an Industrial Tribunal will dwarfing the current highest award of £4.7 million for a similar case against the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The case was heard in 2019 but the 50,475-word judgement was delayed due to the pandemic and released on May 19.
A Remedial Hearing is scheduled for July 21 to decide the award and will consider medical reports from Sidhu’s doctors, Exertis’ doctors and expert witnesses. A decision on the size of the payout will follow around two months later.
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LONDON: Three men who racially bullied a colleague so badly that he endured psychological scars that might keep him from work for life have kept their jobs, with one even receiving a promotion.
Stuart Smith and John Cleary subjected Sikh salesman Kieran Sidhu, 36, to racist abuse, including anti-Arab slurs, in their southern England office at tech firm Exertis, but were not sacked.
Sidhu was abused on a daily basis, being called an “Arab with a shoe bomb” and told that he was associated with Daesh.
Smith’s LinkedIn profile reveals that he is still employed by the tech firm, and was promoted to the position of Amazon and online accounts director in 2020, some three years after the bullying was first investigated.
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George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis sparked a movement not just in the US but around the world, bringing forth a global reckoning around race.
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quit the office in May 2017 while suffering from extreme depression and anxiety.
An employment tribunal in Southampton upheld Mr Sidhu s claims of unfair dismissal and racial harassment by his colleagues and found that crude sexual innuendo and express sexual reference were considered entertaining.
Colleagues branded him the “only ethnic on the team”, a “temperamental Syrian immigrant”, and called him an “Arab shoe bomber”.
One worker also likened his neighbourhood to
Aleppo in Syria after locating it on Google Maps.
Co-workers would put his laptop computer in the bin, hide his mouse and other items around the office.
Mr Sidhu said: They thought this was funny, but it was embarrassing and disruptive for me.
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