A Muslim woman has been awarded more than £22,000 in compensation after it was found that her company’s director made derogatory comments to her about her race and religion.

The claimant, identified as Miss Noreen, had alleged race discrimination, discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, failure to pay a redundancy payment, unauthorised deductions and breach of contract in a claim dated 10 January 2018, against her employer Recruitment Finder.  Noreen is of British Pakistani ethnic origin and is a Muslim.

In its decision, the Employment Tribunal sided with Noreen and found that Recruitment Finder had discriminated against her because of her race and religion.

The Tribunal highlighted that the derogatory comments, made by Recruitment Finder’s director, identified as P Clarke, were not constant, but common, and was worse in the last year or so.

She was lumped in the phrase “You Pakis”, her adherence to fasting during Ramadan was described as a “lot of bollocks to me” and the food she brought from home, even a pasta dish, was referred to as “curry”. It was said that she looked like a “curry muncher” and adverse comments were made about her weight.

Noreen said she felt unable to do anything about this behaviour because she feared for her job. That was also the reason she did not take the holidays she was entitled to as she had been warned by Clarke it might make her position insecure. However, she did take Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and Easter Monday.

The situation deteriorated over the past eighteen months, following her pointing out to Clarke that she had placed more staff than him. She stopped receiving her bonus, commonly about £190 per month, or fuel payments, about £45 per week. 8 At the beginning of July 2017 Clarke called her into his office and gave her two months’ notice of redundancy. She was promised she would receive all sums due to her, but received nothing but her basic pay. Other staff were told not to accept her calls and not to put her through to Clarke.

Her total compensation comprised £7,500 for injury to her feelings, interest in the sum of £2,408.22, a redundancy payment in the sum of £1,185.00, accrued and untaken holiday pay of £4,158.00, bonus pay of £3,800 and £3,510 in fuel expenses.

Recruitment Finder specialises in the supply of temporary and permanent staffing solutions and is based in East England.