Worker wins £22k following ‘old white man’ comments

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A worker who was called an ‘old white man’ by a colleague, whose comments eventually led to him being signed off work with depression, has won his claim for race and age discrimination at an employment tribunal.
Mr Moore was awarded more than £22,000 in compensation after he suffered a barrage of abuse from his colleague Mr Owusu during his time working at Sean Pong Tyres in Rotherham.
Moore claimed he was called “old white man”, “gay white man” and was told he was lazy and too old to do his job, which was often physically demanding and involved unloading and grading tyres for export.
An employment tribunal in Leeds heard that the team was small and three of the workers – including company owner Mr Frimpong – were of Ghanaian decent and regularly spoke in a language not spoken by Moore.
Frimpong told the tribunal that Owusu regularly used bad language when speaking to Moore, but only in response to similar bad language directed at him by Moore. He dismissed much of this behaviour as “banter” and claimed that Owusu had never used racist language towards Moore.
Moore said that he found the language intimidating. He sent a written complaint to Frimpong in January 2021, stating: “Since [Owusu] started at the company he has done nothing but single me out and slurring abuse at me causing a lot of stress and sleepless nights. This letter is a last resort for me and in hopes [SIC] you are able to resolve this matter.”
In his evidence to the tribunal, Frimpong suggested that Moore’s complaint was an attempt to manufacture a legal claim against the company.