Worker wins bias claim

A FORMER Royal Mail worker has been awarded nearly £230,000 after a tribunal concluded that he had faced harassment and discrimination at work.

Former manager Mathan Shunmugaraja was called a “sly dog” by one colleague and was embroiled in a dispute with another over the use of a room in which he was mistaken for a Muslim, reports said.

Shunmugaraja began working for Royal Mail in Cardiff in August 2007, and by 2017, was earning £32,000 a year. He called his dismissal in January 2018 as a “fall from grace”.

He could not find work after that and split his time between sofasurfing in the UK and living in a rural part of India with his mother.

Though the worker who called Shunmugaraja “a sly dog” claimed the slur did not have racial connotations, the tribunal said it would be perceived as an insult in many cultures.

“The claimant loved his job, was clearly performing at a very good level and had every expectation that he would continue to progress his career at Royal Mail until his retirement,” the tribunal said.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said it takes its equality and diversity obligations seriously and is committed to a workplace free of discrimination and harassment.