Tuesday - June 02, 2009

Worker who suffered racial discrimination at refugee charity wins £65,000. Another wronged negr

They’re everywhere.

So ok. Maybe he’s telling the truth. Although I don’t believe him. Which counts for less then nothing I know.
See what gets me is all this BS talk about flashbacks to where he’d lived before.

Born here but parents took him back to the dark continent when a baby and so he grew up there.  But times got bad for mammy and old black joe and so back to the UK they came as fast as their donkey could carry them.  Article says they came back due to the war and killing where they were.  Right. More likely they wanted Brit largess which more then likely put this guy thru law school.  Oh wonderful. Another black lawyer.

How’d he handle the stress there must have been studying and taking tests. Of course, we don’t actually know if the tests he took were the very same ones, others took.  I mean, maybe his civil and human rights required he have an easier test. ???  Well hell. I don’t know.  I just see that old RCOB when ppl start suing for “hurt feelings.”

He suffered psychiatric trauma
he suffered flashbacks to the Nigerian Civil War
He suffered disabling depression
His mind always wandering
He became very resentful of white women, who he feels have been given work in preference to him.
He felt demotivated

And all because he thought he was being discriminated against. Well, perhaps he was.  But how is it determined that race was the reason?  Oh right. I forget.
Any time a person of color raises that issue, the door is closed to anything else.

There has been a total failure by the respondent to offer any form of apology to him at any time.’
Well duh ... would that make a difference? Sure it would. It would be an admission of guilt and besides. What if they don’t think there is anything to say sorry for?  What if race really had nothing to do with it?  But of course, it had to.  De black dude says so and ya can’t deny it by sayin’ , it ain’t necessarily so.

Black immigration worker who suffered racial discrimination at refugee charity wins £65,000

By Andrew Levy
Last updated at 3:43 PM on 02nd June 2009

A black man who was made redundant by the British Refugee Council, leaving only white people at the immigration centre where he worked, has been awarded more than £65,000 compensation.

Emmanuel Obikwu, 45, was unfairly singled out when his unit was earmarked for closure, an employment tribunal ruled.

While he and a Tanzania-born colleague lost their jobs, white colleagues were moved on to new posts.

Mr Obikwu, who has two British Masters degrees in law, suffered stress, anxiety, sleeping disorders, depression, and flashbacks to his own time as a refugee as a result of his treatment.

He has now been awarded £65,475 for unfair dismissal, racial discrimination, injury to feelings, psychiatric injury, and loss of earnings.

The payout follows £30,000 awarded in January to a former colleague, Tanzania-born Zaina Ukwaju, who also lost her job.

Speaking yesterday after the tribunal’s judgement was published, Mr Obikwu accused his former employers of racism.

‘This was a charity that I believed was dedicated to equal treatment of its employees and committed to human rights and the welfare of refugees,’ he said.

‘All I had ever wanted from the British Refugee Council was to be treated equally and fairly.

‘The racism and unfairness meted out to me by this organisation affected my health and damaged my well-being psychologically and psychiatrically.’

Mr Obikwu was born in London but his Nigerian parents returned with him to their homeland when he was a baby.

They came back to the UK a few years later after fleeing the country’s brutal civil war.

Mr Obikwu was educated in Britain and went on to work as an asylum support advice worker at the Oakington Immigration Centre, near Cambridge.

He lost his job in May 2006 after plans to close the unit at the Home Office-run centre were announced.

But he was horrified to learn later on that his white colleagues had been allowed to take jobs elsewhere.

During the eight-day hearing last year, the tribunal was told the council had failed to follow its redundancy rules in ‘the most extreme way’.

It was alleged by Mr Obikwu and Miss Ukwaja that the operations manager Anne-Marie Leech was ‘consciously biased’ when selecting members of staff to be made redundant.

They highlighted the fact that no one who attended a party at her home had lost their job.

The tribunal rejected this claim but said it was likely Ms Leech ‘subconsciously’ favoured colleagues she was friendly with - particularly those at the party.

Bury St Edmunds Employment Tribunal in Suffolk ruled Mr Obikwu deserved compensation for his psychiatric trauma and refused to accept the council’s claim that he would have lost his job regardless of his skin colour.

In their judgement, the three-man panel commented: ‘We are quite satisfied that the ill health which the claimant suffered was caused by race discrimination for which the respondent is responsible.

‘There has been a total failure by the respondent to offer any form of apology to him at any time.’

After losing his job, the tribunal heard, Mr Obikwu took a post as a night project worker with the Salvation Army. But he left in May last year as his psychological problems mounted.

A psychiatric report published with the judgement said he suffered flashbacks to the Nigerian Civil War.

It said: ‘These are pictures coming into his mind, certainly two or three times a week, of them moving from place to place.

‘He was also doing some studying but found his mind always wandering back to what happened at Oakington. He felt demotivated and it was pointless to study.’

A GP’s report added Mr Obikwu’s attitude to employment had also suffered.

‘He has had a major change in his attitude towards colleagues, particularly becoming very resentful of white women, who he feels have been given work in preference to him,’ it said.

‘This depression has been a disabling condition, particularly affecting his motivation and concentration, but also his attitude to work and relationships within the family.’

The British Refugee Council yesterday insisted its managers had acted ‘in good faith’.

A spokesman added: ‘We have reviewed our procedures to ensure that all staff are treated equally and fairly. We regret the distress the process has caused Mr Obikwu.’

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 06/02/2009 at 12:04 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Racism and race relations • UK •  
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