Search
Close this search box.

False accusations amounted to harassment

Jones v TGI Fridays UK Ltd and Zurybida is an interesting case as it shows a further form of prejudice that regrettably can take place in the workplace.

Jones v TGI Fridays UK Ltd and Zurybida is an interesting case as it shows a further form of prejudice that regrettably can take place in the workplace. Here a gay employee was falsely accused of harassing a teenage colleague and a tribunal found that he had been harassed by the staff who had made the false allegations and who had encouraged the teenager to complain.

Mr Jones (J) is gay. A 16 year old male kitchen worker (M) complained to the manager Mr Zurybida (Z) that J had said that he was ‘fit’ and ‘hot’ and co-workers had been teasing him about it. J denied the allegations, but the manager thought there was “no smoke without fire” and something must have happened for the teasing to take place, so J was suspended. A manager from another restaurant conducted an investigation which revealed that J had no case to answer. Although some of the workers repeated the allegations, there was conflicting evidence. The manager concluded there was a culture of banter and the kitchen workers had teased M, telling him that J had said certain things [although he hadn’t] which should be reported to management as harassment. Z spoke to the staff involved, emphasising that such banter was unacceptable, but J was then ignored by his colleagues, who made it clear that he should not be back at work and this made J’s working environment very unpleasant.

The tribunal upheld J’s claim of sexual orientation harassment. J’s colleagues had made false accusations to M that J had said sexually motivated things about him and then explicitly or implicitly encouraged M to complain about J to management who found as a fact that the alleged incidents did not happen. Whether or not the allegations were made as a stupid joke, they were repeated by those that invented them in the context of the investigation when J was facing an extremely serious allegation of being being sexually predatory towards a teenage boy. These clearly created an intimidating, hostile and offensive working environment for J.

Read more

Latest News

Read More

Rise in recruitment fraud must urgently be checked

28 March 2024

Newsletter

Receive the latest HR news and strategic content

Please note, as per the GDPR Legislation, we need to ensure you are ‘Opted In’ to receive updates from ‘theHRDIRECTOR’. We will NEVER sell, rent, share or give away your data to third parties. We only use it to send information about our products and updates within the HR space To see our Privacy Policy – click here

Latest HR Jobs

University of Warwick – WMGSalary: £23,144 to £25,138 per annum This provides summary information and comment on the subject areas covered. Where employment tribunal and

The Open University – People ServicesSalary: £57,696 to £64,914 + up to £8,000 per annum MRP supplement* This provides summary information and comment on the

Cardiff UniversitySalary: Competitive This provides summary information and comment on the subject areas covered. Where employment tribunal and appellate court cases are reported, the information

University of Oxford – Oxford Department of International DevelopmentSalary: £28,759 to £33,966 (Grade 5) This provides summary information and comment on the subject areas covered.

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE