A marketing executive at a party balloon company has lost a sex discrimination claim lodged after his female boss said “sorry boys” as she revealed that a woman had won an award.
Nathan Blakeley, 27, was left so deflated after missing out on a prize at the Christmas party that he launched legal proceedings against the firm in Hampshire on the grounds that he had been overlooked due to his male gender.
The employment tribunal heard that Blakeley’s mother once called the company to complain about her son’s treatment.
However, his claim was dismissed after the tribunal heard that 95% of staff at Bubblegum Balloons in Farnborough were women, so it was not surprising that Blakeley missed out.
Blakeley lost claims of unfair dismissal, age and sex discrimination, harassment and victimisation, all of which were dismissed.
The hearing in Reading was told that Blakeley joined the company in August 2022 as a digital marketing executive.
At the company’s Christmas party that November, prizes were awarded to employees based on the outcomes of votes cast in different categories by their peers.
Blakeley claimed that during the prize-giving, a female director speaking through a microphone said: “Now it’s time for the awards. Spoiler alert – it’s not going to be any of the men.”
He told the tribunal: “At the time of the director’s discriminatory comment, many employees in the crowd looked at me and laughed. I recall turning bright red and feeling embarrassed to have been one of three men in the room at the time in a predominantly female workforce.
“I was disappointed that a director felt it necessary to publicly state I would not receive an award based on my gender and/or target me because of my gender.”
The company disputed his account. The director Megan Robertson told the tribunal: “When I read out the results for one of the award categories, I introduced it by referring to ‘she’ and then went on to say ‘sorry boys’. Given that approximately 95% of the workforce is female, this was not statistically surprising.”
Having watched a video of the incident, the employment judge Andrew Gumbiti-Zimuto agreed with her, ruling that Blakeley’s recollection was “flawed”.
“Taking all the circumstances as they appear to us, we do not consider that it is reasonable that the conduct complained of, namely the announcement made by Megan Robertson using the words that included the comment ‘spoiler alert’, amounted to harassment.”
The tribunal heard that in February 2023 three directors confronted Blakeley over his performance at work. His solicitor mother, Nicola, then rang one of the directors at home to complain about her son’s treatment in an “aggressive and intimidating” call. She complained, among other things, about Blakeley not receiving an award at the Christmas party the year before, the tribunal was told.
Blakeley was suspended on full pay the next day, pending an investigation, and was then dismissed for gross misconduct on 31 March 2023. An investigation found he had provided “false information” regarding advertising sales to the company’s directors and then failed to return his work laptop so it could be examined.
