An Indian national who took legal action against his manager for racial abuse at a KFC outlet in south-east London has been awarded almost £67,000 (over 81 lakh). He claimed he was fired unfairly and treated poorly because of his race, as reported by news agency. PTI.
The victim identified as Madhesh Ravichandran, who originally hails from Tamil Nadu state, told the employment tribunal that his boss, a Sri Lankan Tamil man, named Kajan, treated him badly. He said the manager called him a “slave” and made offensive comments like “Indians are fraudsters” while speaking to him.
In the official order published this week, Judge Paul Abbott supported Mr. Ravichandran’s claims and ruled that the company, Nexus Foods Limited, was guilty of race discrimination and wrongful dismissal.
“The complaints of direct race discrimination are well-founded and succeed,” the judgment said.
“We have found on the facts that the claimant was subjected to the less favorable treatments… his holiday request was refused because he was Indian and [restaurant manager] Kajan wished to prioritize requests from Sri Lankan Tamil colleagues, and he was referred to as a ‘shit’ and a ‘slave’ which is self-evidently less favorable treatment because of his race,” it said.
Mr. Ravichandran started working at the West Wickham KFC in January 2023. He was hired after an interview with Kajan, who became his direct supervisor. Over several months, things got worse until they reached a breaking point in July of that year. At that time, his boss tried to force him to work too many hours during a shift, which led Mr. Ravichandran to hand in his resignation notice.
Harassment at Workplace
The judge stated that he believed the evidence showing Mr. Ravichandran decided to quit because Kajan kept trying to make him work “excessive hours.” During later phone conversations, Kajan reportedly became “racially abusive and threatening” toward the employee.
“This racial abuse from a manager had, we find, the purpose and the effect of violating the claimant’s dignity,” the judgment said.
The court decided that Mr. Ravichandran was “summarily dismissed,” which means he was fired immediately while he was still working through his notice period. By doing this, the company broke the law because they did not give him the one week of notice he was legally entitled to receive.
“It was not asserted by the respondent that the claimant had done anything to entitle it to dismiss the claimant without notice. The claimant was, therefore, wrongfully dismissed and is entitled to be paid one week’s pay in lieu of notice,” it stated.
The Compensation
Following the hearings held in September, the tribunal court ordered the following payments to be given to Mr. Ravichandran – a main payment of £62,690 to make up for the discrimination and job loss. Extra money for unused holiday time and other work-related details. This brought the final total to approximately £66,800.
