A Somalian-born cleaner who was called a ‘golliwog’ and ‘cheeky monkey’ by a colleague is set for a pay-out.
Susan Standing was ruled to have made the comments to Faisal Abdi, 38, while he was working as a cleaner for a company used by Nationwide Building Society.
An employment tribunal at Cardiff Magistrates Court also concluded Ms Standing told Mr Abdi he resembled a ‘golliwog’ in October or November 2019, then in July the following year branded him a ‘cheeky monkey’.
Mr Abdi had accused fellow worker Susan Standing of using the phrase ‘cheeky monkey’ during a disagreement at work.
When the Somali national complained, his bosses told him she may have used it as a ‘term of endearment’ and he should ‘appreciate there are cultural differences in language’
But the tribunal ruled while the phrase ‘cheeky monkey’ might be ‘affectionately’ used towards a young child by an older relative, a white employee saying it to a black person amounted to a racial slur.
Mr Abdi is now in line for compensation after successfully suing his employers for discrimination and harassment.
The tribunal heard he began working for services firm TC Facilities Management in December 2018, and he was employed alongside Ms Standing to clean one of the city’s branches of the Nationwide building society.
In July 2020 Mr Adbi was accused of fraudulently claiming to have worked more hours than he had, the hearing was told.
The following week Ms Standing also accused him of talking to her in a threatening manner and he was suspended.
Protesting the suspension, Mr Abdi submitted a grievance in which he accused Ms Standing of being ‘hostile’ towards him by calling him ‘lazy’ and warning him ‘you are being watched’ and ‘they want to get rid of you’.
He claimed she had been following him, giving him ‘dirty looks’ and had called him a ‘lazy, cheeky monkey‘.
The tribunal heard Mr Abdi also complained of a ‘micro aggression’ in the autumn of 2019 when Ms Standing told him he ‘looked like a golliwog‘.
In October 2020 Ms Abdi was sacked for fraudulently claiming hours, but when he appealed the decision was told he could come back to his job provided he underwent mediation with Ms Standing.
But he refused and in January 2021 the offer to return was withdrawn.
The tribunal, chaired by Judge Rhian Brace, upheld Mr Abdi’s complaints of racial harassment, race discrimination and unfair dismissal.
The panel said of Ms Standing’s language: ‘We concluded that both comments were inherently related to race.
‘That the first comment was inherently related to race was self-evident to us, the golliwog doll being universally considered as a racist caricature and such a comment widely accepted as a racial slur towards black people.
‘With regard to the comment “cheeky monkey”, whilst we accepted that in some domestic circumstances such a comment would not necessarily be inherently related to race – e.g., where a young child might affectionately be referred to as such by an older relative – we considered that in this work context, where there was a disagreement between two workers and the recipient of a comment made by a white employee is black, that such a comment is potentially inherently related to the recipient’s race, widely being regarded as a racial slur.’
The tribunal concluded Mr Abdi had also been discriminated against by being suspended and by the firm’s failure to uphold his complaint of racism.
But other race and disability discrimination claims Mr Abdi had made against his employers were dismissed.
A hearing to decide his compensation will be held at a later date.
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