ET rules worker who found racially charged messages in work WhatsApp group was harassed

Legal Updates Article by: Makbool Javaid, Partner – Simons Muirhead & Burton | Published: 14 December 2020 People Management reports that Watford Employment Tribunal has ruled that an operations clerk was the victim of harassment because of her sex, race and religious belief after finding explicit messages in a WhatsApp group used by her co-workers. The tribunal heard that Ms M. Abdi is a black woman of Somali origin, and she wears a hijab. She worked for the courier as an evening operations clerk from 6 November 2017 until her resignation on 1 September 2018. In August 2018, two new employees – Mr T Tripp and Mr O Rolls – started with Deltec International Courier. On 10 August, there was a discussion in the office between the claimant and her colleagues, during which the topic of white privilege was raised. Abdi said this discussion developed into an argument, which culminated in Tripp and Rolls telling her that “the majority of crimes in England are made by black people”. Subsequently, Abdi, in the course of her duties, used a colleague’s details and logged onto her computer. she saw a WhatsApp group including Tripp and Rolls, as well as her line manager, S…
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