A SENIOR bank worker was sacked after she claimed a colleague employed ‘thick black Africans’ to make himself look smarter, an employment tribunal heard.
Jennifer Macleod was reported for making a series of derogatory remarks about ethnic minority employees and being biased against them when recruiting members of her team.
The experienced Bank of Scotland (HBOS) project manager was accused of having a policy of ‘No Muslims and no Black Africans’ when assessing potential candidates.
Following an investigation into her alleged remarks – which she ‘strongly’ denied making – Ms Macleod was sacked after almost 30 years at the bank for gross misconduct.
She sued HBOS for unfair dismissal but has now lost her case as the allegations against her were ‘sufficiently clear and detailed’.
The tribunal in Scotland heard she joined the bank as a Lead Project Manager in August 1991.
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Ms Macleod’s role relied heavily on managing external contract workers provided by an agency and at the time of the accusations in February 2021 her team was made up of three contractors, the hearing was told.
That month one of the men, Bijay Kalaria, met with Ms Macleod’s line manager to express some concerns about ‘racial slurs, bullying and (the) toxic environment created by her’.
Mr Kalaria said the issues had become ‘too much to bear’ and were affecting his mental health.
He described a number of situations where he said Ms MacLeod had used racially derogatory language or shown bias based on individuals’ race.
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Mr Kalaria said he heard her say regularly, including at a Christmas party in 2018, that another manager ‘surrounds himself with thick black Africans, pays them more than I would, just to make himself look smart’.
He also claimed Ms MacLeod had a policy of ‘No Muslims and no Black Africans’ when recruiting for her team, and asked her team to ‘manipulate the scores’ of candidates interviewed for positions in her team, to ensure no black African or Muslim candidates would secure a role.
The tribunal also heard she was accused of interviewing Muslims to appear diverse, with no intention of recruiting one.
Ms MacLeod was suspended in February while an investigation was undertaken into ‘unfair treatment of colleagues’ and ‘bullying and racist behaviour’.
Fellow contractor Lee Hendry told the investigation he could also recall Ms MacLeod making derogatory comments and said another agency worker who had resigned had cited racism from Ms MacLeod.
The tribunal heard he gave a similar account to that of Mr Kalaria, but also mentioned an occasion when Ms MacLeod was supposed to have said to an Indian contractor ‘they are typical Indians but not like you.’
He raised another occasion on a team call when Ms MacLeod was said to have referred to a contractor named Humeira as a ‘typical Indian’.
Ms MacLeod denied making any of the comments, but accepted they would have been inappropriate to say, had she done so.
The tribunal heard she believed both Mr Kalaria and Mr Hendry had made up the allegations in retaliation for her giving Mr Kalaria negative feedback for his performance.
However, her bosses ruled the feedback was ‘informal’ and was ‘insufficient to be likely to cause both to manufacture such serious allegations’.
Ms MacLeod was sacked in June 2021 after the bank ruled that on the balance of probability, she had made the racist remarks and shown bias in relation to recruitment.
Employment Judge Brian Campbell dismissed her unfair dismissal claim, adding: “[Ms MacLeod] submitted that there was inadequate evidence on which to make a finding of gross misconduct.
“There were three alleged remarks and further allegations about her applying racial bias in recruitment decisions. In number and gravity those were enough.
“The allegations came from two individuals and were sufficiently clear and detailed.
“[HBOS] was entitled to dismiss her in a way which was fair, even if it could also have decided not to do so.
“The decision taken was one which was open to it and the claim is unsuccessful.”