West Wickham KFC franchisee to pay £70k fine over ‘slave’ comment
A south-east London KFC franchisee was forced to pay nearly £70,000 after a manager called an Indian worker a “slave” and forced him to work extra hours, the court heard.
Madhesh Ravichandran, from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, started working at the West Wickham KFC branch in January 2023.
The court was told that two months later Mr Ravichandran was denied annual leave and his boss Kajan Theiventhiram told a colleague he would give priority to Sri Lankan Tamil staff and referred to the claimant as “this slave”.
Tribunal judge Paul Abbott found that Mr Ravichandran had been unfairly dismissed and had been subjected to direct racial discrimination, race-related harassment and victimization.
The court found Mr Ravichandran resigned months after he overheard the comments but there was no real investigation into his allegations.
The judge said he was “distressed and humiliated” and that the refusal of his leave request was “significantly affected” by his race.
Judge Abbott accepted the plaintiff’s evidence that she was forced to work excessive hours because of Mr Theiventhiram’s “racially prejudiced attitude” towards her.
The plaintiff was awarded £66,800 in damages and the court recommended that Nexus Foods Limited, which runs the West Wickham KFC branch, implement a training program for all employees regarding discrimination in the workplace.
