Madhesh Ravichandran, originally from Tamil Nadu, testified at an employment tribunal that his Sri Lankan Tamil supervisor discriminated against him, using derogatory terms like “slave” and calling him “Indians are fraudsters.”
Details from the hearing released this week revealed that tribunal judge Paul Abbott upheld Ravichandran’s allegations of wrongful dismissal and race discrimination against Nexus Foods Limited.
“The complaints of direct race discrimination are well-founded and succeed,” stated the judgment.
“The evidence showed that the claimant experienced less favorable treatment… his holiday request was denied due to his Indian background, as [restaurant manager] Kajan preferred requests from Sri Lankan Tamil staff. Additionally, he was subjected to being called ‘shit’ and ‘slave’, which constitutes less favorable treatment based on his race,” it notes.
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Ravichandran commenced employment at the West Wickham KFC outlet in January 2023 after interviewing with Kajan, to whom he directly reported.
After encountering various issues, tensions escalated in July when his manager tried to force him to work excessive hours, leading Ravichandran to resign.
Judge Abbott acknowledged the evidence indicating that the decision to resign was made due to “Kajan’s persistent efforts” to impose “excessive hours” on him. During subsequent calls, Kajan reportedly became “racially abusive and threatening” towards Ravichandran.
“This racial abuse from a manager had, we find, the purpose and the effect of violating the claimant’s dignity,” the judgment reads.
The tribunal concluded that Ravichandran was “summarily dismissed” while he was serving his notice period and was denied his statutory right to one week’s notice.
“The respondent did not claim that the claimant had acted in a manner that justified the dismissal without notice. Therefore, the claimant was wrongfully dismissed and is entitled to one week’s pay in lieu of notice,” it states.
As part of the tribunal’s remedy from the September hearing, Ravichandran received a compensatory amount of 62,690 pounds, with additional payments for holiday pay and employment-related particulars bringing the total to approximately 66,800 pounds.
The tribunal also mandated that Nexus Foods Limited implement a “training program for all employees addressing workplace discrimination, including specific training for managers on appropriately handling related grievances” within six months of the judgment.
