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Yahoo
05-08-2025
- Yahoo
Black warehouse worker wins £3k payout after colleague's ‘slave' graffito on machinery
A Black warehouse employee has won a race harassment claim for £3,000 after a fellow worker wrote the word 'slave' on a piece of machinery. Seedy Fofana, a former employee at Window Widgets in Gloucester, which deals in plastic and metal parts for windows, was the only Black worker in the warehouse. He originally sought £500,000 in compensation after resigning a month after seeing the phrase written on a Hubtex machine. The word had not been intended as a racial slur but a comment on the working conditions of the warehouse, an employment tribunal heard. Another worker, Tony Bennett, had written variants of the word on multiple items of machinery in protest at working conditions. The employer, who removed all graffiti produced by Mr Bennett but did not see the final, offending piece, was found to have created a 'hostile, humiliating and offensive environment for him' at the tribunal in Bristol. The tribunal found that while finding in the complainant's favour might seem 'harsh', the presence of the highly-charged phrase had to warrant punishment. Judge David Hughes said: 'This is because the term 'slave' will, we find, evoke in contemporary English speakers the enslavement of Black people. All right-thinking people regard slavery as a monstrosity. 'Mr Fofana, an evidently proud Black man, feels the evil of slavery viscerally. That is understandable and respectable. We accept his sense of hurt at the graffito is genuine.' He added: 'The graffito could bear a number of meanings. It could carry the meaning that [the colleague] intended. It might have been understood as a comment on obedient machinery… taking the place of the labour of humans, or on humans' relationship to machines. 'But when one hears the word slavery, English speakers in this jurisdiction in this decade will probably first think of the enslavement of Black people by white people.'
The Independent
05-08-2025
- The Independent
Black warehouse worker wins £3k payout after colleague's ‘slave' graffito on machinery
A Black warehouse employee has won a race harassment claim for £3,000 after a fellow worker wrote the word 'slave' on a piece of machinery. Seedy Fofana, a former employee at Window Widgets in Gloucester, which deals in plastic and metal parts for windows, was the only Black worker in the warehouse. He originally sought £500,000 in compensation after resigning a month after seeing the phrase written on a Hubtex machine. The word had not been intended as a racial slur but a comment on the working conditions of the warehouse, an employment tribunal heard. Another worker, Tony Bennett, had written variants of the word on multiple items of machinery in protest at working conditions. The employer, who removed all graffiti produced by Mr Bennett but did not see the final, offending piece, was found to have created a 'hostile, humiliating and offensive environment for him' at the tribunal in Bristol. The tribunal found that while finding in the complainant's favour might seem 'harsh', the presence of the highly-charged phrase had to warrant punishment. Judge David Hughes said: 'This is because the term 'slave' will, we find, evoke in contemporary English speakers the enslavement of Black people. All right-thinking people regard slavery as a monstrosity. 'Mr Fofana, an evidently proud Black man, feels the evil of slavery viscerally. That is understandable and respectable. We accept his sense of hurt at the graffito is genuine.' He added: 'The graffito could bear a number of meanings. It could carry the meaning that [the colleague] intended. It might have been understood as a comment on obedient machinery… taking the place of the labour of humans, or on humans' relationship to machines. 'But when one hears the word slavery, English speakers in this jurisdiction in this decade will probably first think of the enslavement of Black people by white people.'
Telegraph
05-08-2025
- Telegraph
Comparing workplace conditions to slavery is racial harassment, tribunal rules
A black warehouse worker won a race harassment claim after a colleague graffitied 'slave' in reference to their working conditions. An employment tribunal ruled that Seedy Fofana was entitled to £3,000 compensation after he saw a graffiti of the word 'slave', which 'violated' his dignity. The intended use of the word was nothing to do with race but was an expression of another staff member's frustration at being 'over-worked and under paid', the tribunal heard. 'Violating dignity' Employment Judge David Hughes concluded that even though the colleague 'did not intend to write a graffito that related to race', the term slave does 'evoke in contemporary English speakers the enslavement of black people'. He added: 'Mr Fofana, an evidently-proud black man, feels the evil of slavery viscerally. That is understandable and respectable. We accept his sense of hurt at the graffito is genuine.' He found that 'the graffito did have the effect of violating the [Mr Fofana's] dignity, and creating a hostile, humiliating and offensive environment for him'. The hearing in Bristol was told Mr Fofana was the only black man at Window Widgets in Gloucester, where he started working in September 2023. In August 2022, co-worker Tony Bennett had taken to writing graffiti referencing 'modern slavery' and 'slavery' around the warehouse in protest against the working conditions. The tribunal heard that this included writing the words 'Slave No.' with an arrow pointing to the number three on a forklift-type piece of equipment. Bosses removed all of the graffiti except one they had not spotted, but Mr Fofana saw it in December 2023. He resigned the following month, complaining about the hostile behaviour of staff towards him and then sued the company, claiming £500,000 in compensation. Workplace 'banter' The warehouse had a history of 'banter' within the workplace and several staff had been warned about not crossing a professional boundary, the tribunal heard. One incident saw a colleague sing the songs Bombastic and Iron Lion Zion to Mr Fofana, but they denied any offensive intent. At the tribunal Mr Fofana argued the 'Slave' graffiti caused him to resign, although he admitted he did not report it to anyone, or attempt to remove it himself. He said he had no confidence bosses would investigate properly and that it wasn't his job to clean it up. Employment Judge Hughes said: 'We understand that it was not for him to remove the graffito – why should he clean up someone else's vandalism?' but he added that it could not be removed if no one reported it. He said the company 'cannot be criticised for not addressing a problem of which they were unaware'. Relation to race Upholding Mr Fofana's race harassment claim, he concluded that Mr Bennett wrote the word in August 2022, and did so while employed by Window Widgets. He added: 'It may seem harsh to [the company], but that means that [they] wrote the graffito. 'Equally harsh may seem the conclusion that [Window Widgets] failed to remove a graffito that went unnoticed. But that finding is inevitable. 'We have found that the graffito did relate to race.' However, the tribunal said Mr Fofana's claim for half a million pounds in damages was 'unrealistic'. 'This was a hurtful graffito, but it was one written by a rogue employee, not intended to refer to [his] race, in not prominent writing. 'The [company's] management of the workplace certainly had shortcomings, but we have found that management was not aware of the graffito, and when it learnt of it, took appropriate steps.'
