Irishman wins workplace racism case
BY FERN LANE
A employment tribunal in Manchester, England, has found in favour
of Irishman Gordon Campbell, who claimed racial discrimination
and constructive dismissal against his former company, Carpet
Factors in Bolton. In its ruling, the tribunal said that
Campbell's case was ``well founded''. Damages are to be awarded
later.
Campbell, originally from Tipperary, had told the tribunal that
he was forced to resign from his position as Sales Manager with
the company in 1999 after five years of continuous racial abuse
from a number of his former colleagues. This abuse included being
routinely referred to as a ``thick Irish paddy'' and a
``leprechaun''. He was supported in his allegations by other former
colleagues who confirmed that they had heard staff abusing
Campbell. One member of staff, Alan Birchall, admitted to the
tribunal that Campbell has been the ``butt of company jokes'' and
that he himself had said to Campbell ``There's three things wrong
with you; one, you're Irish; two, you live in this country; and
three, you're still breathing''. The company's claims that
Campbell had crashed his company vehicle, missed sales targets
and was a poor timekeeper were dismissed.
The racial abuse of Irish people, as of other ethnic groups, in
the workplace is not uncommon in England, but Irish workers are
often more reluctant to take their cases to tribunal because of
the difficulty in getting the abuse defined as racially-motivated
in the first place. The victory of Gordon Campbell may begin to
change that, but in the past those few who have gone ahead have
also had to face having their complaints trivialised in media
which, unable to comprehend either that Irish people are an
ethnic group or that as, usually, white people, they could be the
victims of racism, has often treated such cases as frivolous or
another example of ``political correctness gone mad''.
This attitude is embodied by the Daily Telegraph, which reported
the case of Gordon Campbell. Some weeks ago, when it was
announced that Irishness would, after many years of campaigning
by the Irish community in Britain, finally be included as an
ethnic definition on the forthcoming census forms, the newspaper
took offence, pointedly stating in its editorial that ``Irish
people are not black''. Ignoring the fact that some Irish people
are indeed black, the paper insisted that, being white, Irish
people cannot possibly qualify for identity as a distinct ethnic
group.
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