A FORMER employee at a Liberty Wharf restaurant has been awarded £15,000 in compensation after a tribunal found he was racially harassed and assaulted by his manager.
Italian national Vincenzo De Tommaso worked as a waiter at Meat & Eat between 1 June 2023 and 22 August 2023.
The Employment and Discrimination Tribunal found that Mr De Tommaso was subjected to “a continuing act of racial harassment” by Meat & Eat manager Shane Kennedy during this time.
Mr Kennedy did not attend the hearing, which took place this month.
Mr De Tommaso told the tribunal that the racial abuse began in the middle of June 2023, just a couple of weeks after he started working at Meat & Eat, and continued until his employment ended in August 2023.
During that time, Mr Kennedy swore at Mr De Tommaso and said that “Italians must be destroyed from the earth”, the tribunal heard.
“This kind of conduct by Mr Kennedy continued on a regular basis nearly every day including the racist abuse, especially when he had been drinking,” according to the judgment.
Mr Kennedy also started to assault Mr De Tommaso physically around the beginning of July 2023. The manager picked his employee up by the collar and pushed him against the wall. He said: “Italians are s*** and have nothing in their heads.”
Mr De Tommaso said that other staff were also treated badly by the manager.
The most serious incident took place in the early hours of the morning on 23 August 2023, when Mr Kennedy hit Mr De Tommaso in the face with a steak.
Mr De Tommaso went straight to the hospital after the incident. His ligaments were pulled and there were haematomas in his leg.
He did not go back to work after the attack.
Mr De Tommaso continues to have problems with his neck, and has not been able to sleep properly since, according to the judgment.
“Before the incident, he was a smiley happy person. Now he is afraid and solitary. He used to go out a lot and now he doesn’t go out.”
Mr Kennedy admitted assault and resisting arrest.
He appeared in the Magistrate’s Court earlier this year, and was fined £1,600.
The tribunal found that Mr Kennedy subjected Mr De Tommaso to “a lengthy campaign of discriminatory harassment due to Mr De Tommaso’s nationality”.
The staff member was therefore awarded the maximum amount of £5,000 for hurt and distress.
The tribunal also considered the assault with the steak to be a separate incident.
“We are satisfied based on the evidence of Mr De Tommaso that the assault had a racial element as the physical assault was accompanied by discriminatory language,” the tribunal said.
Mr De Tommaso was awarded a further £5,000 for hurt and distress for that incident.
The incident led to the termination of Mr De Tommaso’s employment, and he was unable to work for a significant period of time after the incident.
The tribunal found that Mr De Tommaso’s financial loss following the incident on 23 August 2023 amounted to more than £5,000, but the compensation limit is £5,000.
Mr De Tommaso was therefore awarded a total of £15,000 in compensation for racial harassment.
