Polish labourer wins Employment Tribunal claim after being told to “go back to your country”

Redmans Solicitors
March 18, 2014

A Polish labourer has won his Employment Tribunal claim against his former employer after he was subjected to racially- and religiously-discriminatory comments and unfairly dismissed.

Mr Daniel Brzezinski, of Polish national origin, worked for Alan, Lee, and Dale Edgar (trading as “Edgar Contracts”) from March 2011 until he was dismissed in January 2013. He subsequently brought an Employment Tribunal claim for race discrimination, religious belief discrimination, and unfair dismissal, based on the following facts:

That Mr Brzezinski was referred to as a “fenian” by members of the business
That he was told to “go back to [his] country” by members of the business
That he had not been provided with a copy of his contract of employment
That he had not been paid minimum wage during his employment
That he had not been paid the correct pay for his accrued holiday
That he was dismissed for redundancy but that Edgar Contracts had subsequently stated that he was being dismissed for gross misconduct based upon purported “continuous aggressive behaviour”

The claim came before the Employment Tribunal earlier this year, with Mr Brzezinski giving evidence in his favour against Edgar Contracts. The Employment Tribunal ruled in Mr Brzezinski’s favour in his Employment Tribunal claims, holding that Mr Brzezinski had been “sacked summarily and unfairly for redundancy and was unfairly selected for a discriminatory reason.” Mr Brzezinski was awarded £55,000 in compensation for his Employment Tribunal claims – this was based upon Mr Brzezinski’s loss of earnings due to his unfair dismissal, the injury to his feelings as a result of the discrimination, the loss of his statutory rights, and the ‘aggravated award’ – with the Tribunal also stating that the attempt to make it look like Mr Brzezinski had been dismissed for gross misconduct was “spurious” and that it was an aggravating factor in the amount of money that had been awarded to the claimant. It is not currently clear whether Edgar Contracts actively defended the claims or whether they left them to go uncontested.

Chris Hadrill, an employment solicitor at Redmans, commented on the case: “This case demonstrates that employers must treat their employees fairly in redundancy situations and must not make decisions to dismiss that are based on a discriminatory reason. If an employer dismisses an employee for a discriminatory reason then they face a potentially lengthy, time-consuming, and expensive Employment Tribunal claim.”

Redmans Solicitors are employment solicitors in Hammersmith and are settlement agreement solicitors