FACTS

Ms Shirin, 51, worked for Wilson Barca LLP, as a paralegal.

She had qualified as a Barrister a few years earlier, and then worked in a solicitor’s firm before applying for this role because it promised the possibility of a training contract after 12 months.

Ms Shirin kept a diary over the 8 months she spent with firm. In that diary she recorded Richard Barca, the Senior Partner at the firm, screaming abuse at her. His comments included calling her, amongst other things, “fucking stupid”, “a stupid cunt”, “a stupid cow” and “a stupid melon”.

She also claimed that a Ms Rajananth, another employee of the firm, said that Ms Shirin was too “old” and “slow” for the job.

Ms Shirin brought claims of direct discrimination and constructive dismissal, racial, sex, and age-related harassment against Wilson Barca LLP, as well as Mr Barca and Ms Rajananth individually.

DECISION

The Tribunal found that Ms Shirin had been harassed in respect of age by Wilson Barca LLP and Ms Rajananth, and in respect of sex by Wilson Barca LLP and Mr Barca but dismissed all other claims. It was agreed by everyone that Mr Barca had a very short temper, and frequently shouted and swore at Ms Shirin. A large part of the case revolved on whether Mr Barca was abusive towards Ms Shirin because of her age, race or gender, or because he was abusive towards everybody i.e. the “we treat everyone that way” defence (also known as the “bastard” defence).

Sex discrimination

The Tribunal took the view that Mr Barca was “unrestrained in abusing employees” and that, while his behaviour probably amounted to tortious harassment, it was (with two exceptions) unrelated to Mrs Shirin’s protected characteristics. The two exceptions were incidents where he called Ms Shirin “a stupid cow” and “a stupid cunt”, which the Tribunal found were sex-related.

Age discrimination

It was Ms Rajananth’s comments that Ms Shirin was too old that were found to be age-related harassment because they were comments related to age and had the effect of creating a degrading or offensive environment for Ms Shirin.

The Tribunal was particularly concerned that there was a pattern of remarks made by Ms Rajananth about Ms Shirin both being too old, and not being as efficient as a younger comparator (her predecessor in the role). It rejected the submission that Ms Shirin was overly sensitive about these comments to an extent that put her outside of statutory protection.

Interestingly, an incident where Ms Rahananth made comments about Ms Shirin being stupid, clumsy and slow in the context of being supportive of Ms Shirin were found not to have the effect of creating a degrading or offensive environment for Ms Shirin.

The Respondents - Wilson Barca LLP, Mr Barca and Ms Rajananth – were ordered to pay for injury to feelings the sum of £46,908.38, inclusive of aggravated damages (£5,000) and interest.

The judgment is available here.

Ms M Shirin v Wilson Barca LLP and Others: 2208035/2016