Tribunal: office banter was "extremely childish"...but not racist

Tuesday 15 November 2016

Tiffin Teahouse and Eatery, and one of its directors Nicholas Wring, have won a case brought against them by an employee for unfair dismissal and discrimination involving office 'banter,' which was later found to be fabricated.

Waiter, Mihai Prahoveanu, took his case to the Employment and Discrimination Tribunal after he left the Tiffin Teahouse in September 2015.

It was alleged that Mr Wring put up a newspaper headline in 2013 on the staff notice board at the Tiffin Teahouse which read: “Shanty Town Romanians evicted.” Underneath the headline it was alleged someone had written, “...and now headed to Jersey.”

Mr Wring said the newspaper article was instigated by other Romanian staff, and "...by joining in with the joke in order to get on better with the staff, this was born out of naivety rather than racism.”

But Mr Prahoveanu, a Romanian national, told the Tribunal the newspaper article was indicative of Mr Wring’s attitude towards staff and Romanians in particular, and he had been discriminated against, suffering hurt and distress. 

However the Tribunal concluded: “...[it was] very concerned at the incident concerning the newspaper article but accepted that it took place prior to the coming into force of the Law. It appeared to be indicative of an unhealthy level of so-called banter amongst the staff. The way in which Mr Wring involved himself in such an incident in order to somehow appear as “one of the lads” set a bad example and did him no credit. It showed him to be extremely childish if nothing else but...he was no racist whatever else he thought of him. It seemed to the Tribunal that Mr Wring had learned the error of his ways and if the Law has had the effect of improving the behaviour of employers and employees in the workplace then that is to be welcomed."

On that basis, It found the discrimination allegation was fabricated by Mr Prahoveanu after the event. 

In terms of alleged unfair dismissal, Mr Prahoveanu said he was assaulted or subjected to aggressive behaviour on three separate occasions by Mr Wring. These involving pushing and verbal abuse and in the final of the three incidents, on September 10^th 2015, Mr Prahoveanu ended his employment at the Tiffin Teahouse, situated on the Waterfront.

Mr Prahoveanu alleged he was threatened with an assault and he went home to complain by text message to Mr Wring’s wife. However, the text exchange was actually with Mr Wring and two days later Mr Prahoveanu was told he was no longer needed and that there would be an investigation.   

Mr Prahoveanu told the Tribunal he did not resign, but the hearing concluded they were “not impressed” with the evidence of the applicant: "In a claim that was reliant upon findings of fact [Mr Prahoveanu] was not an honest witness and that proved to be the undoing of his claim. The Tribunal found as a matter of fact that the Applicant resigned on 12 September 2015 and was not dismissed. As a consequence, he was not entitled to compensation for unfair dismissal."