Moorfields Eye Hospital sued for race discrimination

An ophthalmic technician (Band 3) successfully claimed against her employer, Moorfields Eye Hospital for race discrimination, harassment based on race and victimisation. The damages are yet to be decided.

In the case which you can read here, following her complaint, the Claimant, Ms Shaikh, was moved from her post by a manager, Mr Holm to paediatrics (even though there was less demand for staff in paediatrics than medical imaging).

There were concerns amongst non white staff that their progression was limited and it was accepted by the Tribunal that Mr Holm himself had "...referred to another colleague who was Filipino and how people in the department believed he had not progressed due to his ethnicity."

Mr Holm also mimicked staff's accents for example, the tribunal said he was found to be: "imitating the way a Filipino nurse spoke, and kept repeating mispronounced words and belittling the nurse." In addition, "Mr Holm mimicked an Indian doctor when asked for a request of imaging, mimicked her accent, laughing at the way they pronounced “will” due to their accent, and imitated that the doctor was of Indian descent"

There were also examples of "Mr Holm singling out the claimant and Ms Chekar (another employee), providing evidence from which we could conclude that Mr Holm would not have treated a white comparator in the same way."

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