An east London NHS hospital Trust has been forced to pay out more than £120,000 to black staff members it racially discriminated against.
An employment tribunal ordered the payout after race claims brought by two staff members at the Clinical Biochemistry department at Queen’s Hospital in Romford.
Barking Havering & Redbridge University Trust chief executive, Matthew Trainer, apologised over the “unacceptable” discrimination towards Ubah Jama and Princess Mntonintshi, and admitted: “We need to do better.”
Ms Jama, a biochemist of Somali origin, was subjected to numerous incidents of racial discrimination and harassment over a two-year period, the tribunal found, which included her being called “paininarse” on a public work document.
It heard how in February 2020, Ms Jama was left shaken when her colleague Tatyana Zadorozny lost her temper and threw a tube containing a patient’s sample where she and two black colleagues were sitting, causing her to make a health and safety complaint.
Judges found that she was passed over for a training course, which a white colleague was offered, and that she was instructed to work while off sick with Covid in retaliation for making race discrimination complaints.
Now the Trust has been ordered to pay at least £58,632 towards the senior scientist.
The tribunal heard how the “offensive” tag of “paininarse” showed up over Ms Jama’s name in a public spreadsheet seen across the Trust.
Although employment judges accepted this was inserted innocently by a colleague, who intended it as a nickname for the computer, her boss, Iris Valera-Larios, was found to have racially harassed her by failing to take steps to remove the “paininarse” tag.
Separately, Princess Mntonintshi, another claimant from the same department, was awarded a payout of £64,217 over race discrimination.
Employment judges were told how the scientist, of Black South African origin, was wrongly accused of fraud while on a probationary period by her manager, Ms Valera-Larios.
The tribunal heard: “This brought back the treatment she experienced during apartheid in South Africa, when black people were accused of criminal acts they had not done and monitored for the colour of their skin.”
Matthew Trainer, Trust Chief Executive, said: “I’d like to offer our sincere apologies to Princess and Ubah for their experiences at our Trust.
“The discrimination they experienced was unacceptable. We failed to act appropriately when they raised concerns, and we need to do better.”
