Car dealership worker's “racism” claim stalls

Friday 07 September 2018

A ex-car dealership worker who was fired after aggressively confronting a customer over a “racist” comment has been told that he cannot claim compensation for unfair dismissal.

The Employment Tribunal concluded that TrustFord Jersey had acted "reasonably" in sacking David Marinho, who worked as a driver.

In a hearing held in July, the Tribunal heard that Mr Marinho was issued with a final written warning after displaying “aggressive” and “unprofessional behaviour” towards his colleagues in February 2017.

Months later, an argument between two other members of staff at the car dealership was overheard by a customer who then made a comment which Mr Marinho considered to be “racist”.

It is unclear what the specific nature of this comment was, but witnesses stated that it was neither “offensive” nor “racist”. 

Mr Marinho approached the customer to confront him about what he had said. Witnesses to the incident said that Mr Marinho went “face-to-face” with the customer and that he himself was “red in the face with anger”. Another witness described his behaviour as “totally out of order” and “very aggressive”.

Following the incident, the customer involved filed a complaint against Mr Marinho, saying that he “felt intimidated” by his reaction and that his “attitude was shocking." 

Mr Marinho then had to appear at an internal disciplinary hearing where he denied having been aggressive towards the customer, that the witness statements were untrue, and that the customer had been racist towards him.

The internal hearing resulted in Mr Marinho’s dismissal, which he then appealed. When this was unsuccessful, he applied to the Employment Tribunal for compensation on the grounds of unfair dismissal.

Pictured: The Employment and Discrimination Tribunal found against the driver for TrustFord, a local car dealership.

Despite Mr Marinho's protestations that he had been responding to racism, Hillary Griffin, Chairman of the tribunal panel, dismissed the nature of the customer's comment as "not relevant" to the case. 

In the end, she agreed with Mr Marinho's employer that his behaviour constituted "misconduct" - a sackable offence. She added that this conclusion had been reached following a "fair and reasonable examination of the facts."

“In light of the final written warning and that it was issued… for similar misconduct… the decision to dismiss [Mr Marinho] fell within the band of reasonable responses of a reasonable employer," she wrote in her judgement.