UK Court Orders Rs 81 Lakh Payout To Indian Worker After Racism
London : An Indian national who took legal action against his manager for racial abuse at a KFC outlet in south-east London has been awarded almost £67,000 (over ₹81 lakh). The victim identified as Madhesh Ravichandran, who originally hails from Tamil Nadu state, told the employment tribunal that his boss, a Sri Lankan Tamil man, named Kajan, treated him badly. Judge Paul Abbott supported Mr. Ravichandran’s claims and ruled that the company, Nexus Foods Limited, was guilty of race discrimination and wrongful dismissal.
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 said. Mr. Ravichandran started working at the West Wickham KFC in January 2023. He was hired after an interview with Kajan, who became his direct supervisor.
Over several months, things got worse until they reached a breaking point in July of that year. At that time, his boss tried to force him to work too many hours during a shift, which led Mr. Ravichandran to hand in his resignation notice. The judge stated that he believed the evidence showing Mr. Ravichandran decided to quit because Kajan kept trying to make him work “excessive hours.” During later phone conversations, Kajan reportedly became “racially abusive and threatening” toward the employee.
This racial abuse from a manager had, we find, the purpose and the effect of violating the claimant’s dignity,” the judgment said. The court decided that Mr. Ravichandran was “summarily dismissed,” which means he was fired immediately while he was still working through his notice period. By doing this, the company broke the law because they did not give him the one week of notice he was legally entitled to receive.
