Irish Examiner has reported that a Nigerian, Victor Kings Oluebube, who was abused racially at his workplace in Ireland and told he “looks like a chimpanzee” has lost his racial discrimination case against his employer.
The adjudication officer at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), Maire Mulcahy, found that the statements allegedly made by the colleague against Oluebube “are indicative of a reprehensible mindset and undoubtedly constitute harassment on the grounds of race.”
According to Mulcahy, “The comment could not be other than degrading, hostile and humiliating.”
However, Mulcahy discovered that the claim by Oluebube against his employer, CPL Solutions Ltd, on the grounds of race failed.
She said CPL Solutions Ltd was able to avail of a defence under the Employment Equality Acts by establishing that it made effort to reverse the effects of the harassment and to forestall a recurrence.
She sais as a result, the company did not discriminate against Mr Oluebube on the race grounds in infringement of the Employment Equality Acts.
Oluebube who worked as a warehouse operative and alleged at the WRC that the warehouse team leader imitated the sounds of a monkey in front of him and his colleagues in February 2019.
The team leader told Mr Oluebube that he ”looked like a chimpanzee.”
Oluebube told the WRC that he found the remarks “to be highly degrading and humiliating but hoped it would be a one-off remark”. He did not lodge a complaint about the incident.
However, after three months, on May 21, 2019, when Mr Oluebube came two minutes late returning from his break, the warehouse team leader is alleged to have said to him “you look like a chimpanzee.”
The team leader apologised to Mr Oluebube thirty minutes after the incident and said he didn’t mean to be racist. He asked him to “let it rest here” and that “he had black friends.”
Oluebube was encouraged by his colleagues to report the incident and he reported the issue to the warehouse manager the following day.
The recruitment agency, CPL Solutions which trade as Flexsource Recruitment, denied the discrimination charge and stated that it did not approve any affront to Mr. Oluebube.
CPL Solutions disclosed the only incident brought to its notice was the one that happened on May 21, 2019.
The company said it encouraged Mr Oluebube to lodge an official complaint.
A manager talked to the perpetrator and he stated that he had apologised to Oluebube and apologised again.
CPL disclosed further that it acted swiftly and investigated the matter. Also, it said the perpetrator admitted to the statements that Oluebube reported.
Furthermore, CPL said the perpetrator was issued a final written warning which is one step from dismissal.
The recruitment agency said it made efforts to forestall recurrence of such embarrassment and apart from the final warning, adequate training was provided to the perpetrator.
