Irish book-keeper wins more than £23,000 for racial harassment at Leeds employment tribunal
An Irish employee has been awarded more than £23,000 after a Leeds employment tribunal found she was racially harassed at work by the director of engineering firm West Leeds Civils.
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The tribunal ruled that Bernadette Hayes, a book-keeper, was subjected to repeated abuse linked to her Irish heritage, including being called “potato,” “paddy,” “stupid paddy” and “pikey,” terms the judge described as “offensive and humiliating” and “overtly linked to race.”
Employment Judge Buckley awarded Ms. Hayes £20,735.91 in compensation and ordered the business to pay a further four weeks’ wages, amounting to £2,800. The ruling followed allegations that the company’s director, Mick Atkins, shouted the slurs at her—often “in a strong Irish accent”—between December 2023 and June 2024, creating what the tribunal said was a hostile working environment.
Ms. Hayes, who was 55 at the time, told the tribunal that Mr. Atkins would repeat the word “potato” in front of other staff and send potato imagery in WhatsApp exchanges. She said he referred to her as a “gypsy/traveller” and suggested she was “lusting after the travellers outside the office.”
“This totally eroded my self-respect and my self-esteem. It made me feel small, insecure, violated and extremely anxious,” Ms. Hayes said in evidence, adding that the preceding six months at work felt like “a death by 1,000 cuts.”
She said the behaviour “ramped up” after Mr. Atkins’s friend Marcus Smith became involved in the business. Ms. Hayes later raised a grievance about Mr. Smith’s conduct, which she described as “bullish,” and subsequently lodged a complaint of indirect harassment. She went off sick in July 2024 with work-related stress and was later dismissed.
In a message to Mr. Atkins that month, she wrote: “I do want to leave, I am sorry. Life is too short and I have been unhappy for some time, and it’s not fair on either of us to let that continue.”
Judge Buckley found that Ms. Hayes told Mr. Atkins on a number of occasions that she did not find his comments funny. While the tribunal accepted she had “joined in” twice by using the word “potato” or a potato emoji in messages, it concluded she did so to “fit in” and “make it seem OK,” and that this did not diminish the impact of the harassment.
“From a subjective point of view, it clearly created a hostile, humiliating and offensive environment for her,” Judge Buckley said. “In my view, taken as a whole, it is reasonable for an individual of Irish heritage to find the repeated use of the terms ‘potato,’ ‘paddy,’ ‘stupid paddy’ and ‘pikey’ offensive and humiliating. These phrases are overtly linked to race, particularly when considered together rather than in isolation. On that basis the harassment claim succeeds.”
Contacted by the Daily Mail, Mr. Atkins described the proceedings as “nonsense from start to finish.”
West Leeds Civils did not address the ruling during the hearing, according to the tribunal’s written decision. The award to Ms. Hayes covers injury to feelings and related losses, alongside the order for four weeks’ pay.
Racial harassment in the workplace is unlawful, and the tribunal emphasized that employers must ensure a working environment free from hostility and humiliation based on protected characteristics, including race and nationality.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
