‘Scousers’ jibe driver loses race bias case

‘I feel so insulted and disgusted’

A BUS driver who claimed he was subjected to racism when his Scots boss mocked his Liverpudlian accent has lost an employment tribunal.

Antony Ryan, who was born in Liverpool, felt ‘insulted’ after being told to ‘calm down, calm down’ – in the style of comedian Harry Enfield’s Scousers characters – by Margaret Robertson.

Mr Ryan was so ‘offended’ he missed two days’ work and was later sacked for unauthorised absence. He then took Shetland coach hire firm R Robertson & Son to an employment tribunal.

But although the comment was deemed ‘unprofessional’, the panel ruled his race discrimination claim failed because he was not being mocked for his English ‘national origin’.

The panel heard that during a grievance meeting, Mrs Robertson ‘mocked’ Mr Ryan’s accent, telling him and a colleague: ‘You boys need to go and calm down, calm down.’

The tribunal, held remotely from Edinburgh, heard Mr Ryan was ‘extremely offended’.

He was ‘so stressed’ he went home and sent a text saying: ‘I feel so insulted and disgusted at present and am in no frame of mind to work at present.’

He did not turn up the following day either and was fired in January this year for ‘inappropriate conduct’ and ‘unauthorised absence’. The panel, headed by employment judge James Young, concluded that it was not a medical reason to miss work.

It found he was not discriminated against because the comment only related to Mr Ryan being from Liverpool and he was not mocked ‘on account of his national origin, namely being English’.