Worker sacked for mocking Irish accent wins unfair dismissal claim
An engineering warehouse worker who was sacked after saying “good morning” to a colleague in a fake Irish accent has been awarded a five-figure sum after an employment tribunal deemed it an unfair dismissal.
Karl Davies, then 57, was working at a manufacturing facility in Wales on August 13, 2024, when he greeted manager Scott Millward with his accent while listening to Irish music.
The court in Mold was told that Mr Millward, a manager at the Oscar Mayer ready meals manufacturing plant in Wrexham, was accompanying a “red-headed” external auditor when the remark was made and reported the colleague to the employer, who launched an investigation into whether the comments amounted to racial harassment.
The plaintiff repeated the phrase numerous times, and trial Judge Vincent Ryan agreed that he “effectively channeled the musical mood.”
The judge said Mr Davies used a “reprehensible” and “sarcastic” accent and provoked Mr Millward by repeating the phrase “in a way that Mr Millward found offensive and embarrassing”.
He said the plaintiff was trying to get on Mr Millward’s nerves in order to get a reaction out of him and embarrass him.
He added: “I do not think the intention was to racially abuse Mr Millward and I have no evidence that this had any effect on anyone.
“(Mr Davies) was still blameworthy because he was loyal to Mr Millward.
“It gave rise to disciplinary proceedings and therefore contributed to the ultimate sanction.”
The court heard the plaintiff did not know and had not seen the inspector, who was not known or believed to be Irish.
The court was told that a manager with whom Mr Davies had an unresolved complaint was leading the investigation into Mr Davies’ comments.
The judge wrote that Oscar Mayer’s disciplinary case was based on Mr Davies’ perception that the auditor might have perceived he looked “typically Irish”.
The judge ruled that Mr Davies’s statement amounted to harassment by his employer, but found that neither his clean disciplinary record nor his 27 years of employment at the firm were taken into account.
The court found that the investigator chosen was “unsuitable”, witness statements were inconsistent, and the investigation was “based largely on conjecture”.
Mr Davies was awarded more than £16,000 for unfair dismissal.
The judge said: “The claimant was accused of terminating his employment, damaging his reputation, causing loss, using a racially motivated slur, a slur likely to create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive working environment; these are serious matters.
“Given the specific facts of this case, I find that the dismissal was unfair; this does not mean that I approve of the use of the salutation or sarcastic accents in question.”
He added that the case was “not a sign of wakefulness or anti-wakefulness.”
