A council officer has been sacked after she showed colleagues a picture of golliwogs, claiming it showed the future of the Royal Family.
Jane Copley defended her comment, made after Meghan Markle announced she was pregnant with her first child, as ‘banter’ saying she was trying to fit in with the office culture.
But she was fired for gross misconduct after others she worked with complained.
As well as the golliwog incident, she told a racist ‘joke’ about tennis star Serena Williams, likening to her a monkey in a zoo by suggesting she decorated her home with ‘tyres and fruit’.
Mrs Copley, 55, sued the local authority for unfair dismissal, age discrimination and disability discrimination.
But the housing support worker lost her tribunal case against Rochford District Council in Essex.
The hearing in London was told Mrs Copley joined the council in January 1991 as a personal assistant but her role changed to Housing Options Support Officer in March 2018.
In June the following year, six of her colleagues raised a collective grievance after becoming ‘concerned and angry’ about her behaviour.
The complaint included claims she had showed racist material to them at work, allegations of bullying and accusations she was undermining, manipulating and demeaning fellow workers.
The ‘drip drip’ effect of her behaviour was spoiling people’s enjoyment at work or their well-being, they said, with some saying they were losing sleep due to the atmosphere she created.
The tribunal heard that one of the complaints centred around an incident after the Duchess of Sussex had announced her pregnancy in October 2018.
‘(Mrs Copley) had shown colleagues a picture of a group of golliwogs stating that it was the Royal Family several decades hence,’ the tribunal heard.
‘(She) also told a ‘joke’ about Serena Williams’ minimal style of decoration being tyres and fruit. The aim was to liken her to a monkey.
‘Some staff were particularly offended by the material.’
Angela Law, who investigated the grievance for the council, asked the staff who complained about whether normal ‘banter’ in the office included a racist element.
All denied they would share such material. They claimed their chats at work centred around love life, family and TV.
Ms Law told Mrs Copley about the grievance on 28 June 2019 and Mrs Copley started a lengthy sickness absence on 1 July 2019 with anxiety and depression. She was never sufficiently well to return to work.
The tribunal heard ‘the grievance had upset her and triggered a significant bout of anxiety and depression’. She was said to be ‘horrified’ to receive the grievance and ‘she thought it portrayed her as some kind of monster’.
Mrs Copley claimed the grievance and investigation were a witch hunt designed to get her fired and believed the six staff had colluded to make false claims.
But in her answers to the investigation, she admitted she had shared the golliwog picture and made the Serena Williams so-called ‘joke’.
She stated this was part of ‘usual office banter’ and she was ‘doing it against her better judgment to try to join in’. She did not give any examples of racist material being shared previously by any colleagues.
Mrs Copley was sacked in January 2020 and proceeded to file her claims against the council.
The tribunal also heard she accused the council of failing to make reasonable adjustments for her anxiety and depression, but Employment Judge Samantha Moor dismissed all of her claims.
She said: ‘It was plainly offensive conduct: sharing material that was unarguably racist. The employer could reasonably conclude that it was not ‘mild’ as [Mrs Copley] had alleged because by sharing that kind of material a racist attitude was revealed.
‘It was reasonable too, for the council to take into account that it served the public and expected particularly high standards of behaviour. For this reason it had a zero tolerance approach to racism.’
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