London: An Indian man who accused his manager at a KFC franchise outlet in south-east London of wrongful dismissal and race discrimination has won nearly 67,000 pounds in compensation after a tribunal ruled in his favour.
Madhesh Ravichandran, from Tamil Nadu, told an employment tribunal hearing that his Sri Lankan Tamil boss discriminated against him and used references such as “slave” and “Indians are fraudsters” directed at him.
In details from the hearing published this week, tribunal judge Paul Abbott upheld Ravichandran’s claim of wrongful dismissal and race discrimination against Nexus Foods Limited.
“The complaints of direct race discrimination are well-founded and succeed,” reads the judgment.
“We have found on the facts that the claimant was subjected to the less favourable treatments… his holiday request was refused because he was Indian and [restaurant manager] Kajan wished to prioritise requests from Sri Lankan Tamil colleagues, and he was referred to as a ‘shit’ and a ‘slave’ which is self-evidently less favourable treatment because of his race,” it notes.
Ravichandran began work at the West Wickham outlet of KFC in January 2023 following his interview with Kajan, whom he reported to directly.
After facing months of problems, matters came to a head in July of that year when his boss attempted to make Ravichandran work excessive hours on a shift and handed in his notice.
Judge Abbott said he accepted the evidence that his decision followed “Kajan’s persistent efforts” to make him work “excessive hours”. During follow-up calls, Kajan was said to have become “racially abusive and threatening” towards Ravichandran.
“This racial abuse from a manager had, we find, the purpose and the effect of violating the claimant’s dignity,” reads the judgment.
The tribunal concluded that Ravichandran was “summarily dismissed” whilst serving out his notice and was denied his statutory right to one week’s notice.
“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 states.
As part of the remedy from the findings of the tribunal hearing held in September, Ravichandran was granted a compensatory sum of 62,690 pounds, with additional payments in lieu of holiday pay and employment-related particulars, taking the total to around 66,800 pounds.
The tribunal also directed Nexus Foods Limited to implement a “training programme for all employees concerning discrimination in the workplace, such programme to include training for managers on appropriate handling of grievances in this regard” within six months of the judgment.
