Meat & Eat employee compensated £15,000 for racial harassment

Monday 16 December 2024

A former Meat & Eat employee who was racially harassed and assaulted by his manager has been awarded £15,000 in compensation.

Italian national Vincenzo De Tommaso worked as a waiter at Meat & Eat in Liberty Wharf between 1 June 2023 and 22 August 2023.

The Employment and Discrimination Tribunal found that Mr De Tommaso was subjected to "a continuing act of racial harassment" by Meat & Eat manager Shane Kennedy during this time.

Mr Kennedy did not attend the hearing, which took place on 10 December 2024.

Mr De Tommaso told the Tribunal that the racial abuse began in the middle of June 2023, just a couple of weeks after he started working at Meat & Eat, and continued until his employment ended in August 2023.

During that time, Mr Kennedy called Mr De Tommaso a “f****** c***”.

The Meat & Eat manager also said that "Italians must be destroyed from the earth", and described them as "the s*** of the earth, parasites and lazy bastards".

"This kind of conduct by Mr Kennedy continued on a regular basis nearly every day including the racist abuse, especially when he had been drinking," according to the judgment.

Mr Kennedy also started to assault Mr De Tommaso physically around the beginning of July 2023.

The manager picked his employee up by the collar and pushed him against the wall.

He said: “Italians are s*** and have nothing in their heads.” 

Mr De Tommaso said that other staff were also treated badly by the manager.

The most serious incident took place in the early hours of the morning on 23 August 2023, when Mr Kennedy invited Mr De Tommaso to have a beer with him after they finished work.

Jason Monroe, Mr Kennedy’s business partner, was also there. Mr Monroe and Mr Kennedy showed Mr De Tommaso a photo of when he was eating steak.

Mr De Tommaso understood that there was something amiss, and he tried to leave. Mr Kennedy stopped him and told him to have another beer.

When Mr Monroe went to the toilet, Mr Kennedy went to the freezer to get a bag of frozen steak and started verbally abusing Mr De Tommaso.  

He said he wasn’t worth anything so shouldn’t eat anything, and told him that he should "eat s***" because of where he came from.

Mr Kennedy tried to give Mr De Tommaso the frozen bag of steak, but he said he didn't want it.

While Mr De Tommaso was distracted, Mr Kennedy came behind him and hit him in the face with the bag of steak.

Mr De Tommaso fell and hit his head on the floor, and his legs got tangled up in a stool. Mr Kennedy kicked him in the back of the shin and in the back.

Mr De Tommaso tried to escape but his legs remained tangled in the stool. 

He eventually managed to get up and leave, but the gate was shut and all his things were inside.

Mr De Tommaso tried to calm Mr Kennedy down but he went after him, so Mr De Tommaso had to climb over the gate to get away.

Police were called and Mr Kennedy was handcuffed and taken away.  

Mr De Tommaso went straight to the hospital after the incident. His ligaments were pulled and there were haematomas in his leg.

He did not go back to work after this incident.

Mr De Tommaso continues to have problems with his neck, and has not been able to sleep properly since.

"Before the incident he was a smiley happy person. Now he is afraid and solitary. He used to go out a lot and now he doesn’t go out," the judgment said.

Mr Kennedy admitted assault and resisting arrest. He appeared in the Magistrate's Court earlier this year, and was fined £1,600.

The Tribunal found that Mr Kennedy subjected Mr De Tommaso to "a lengthy campaign of discriminatory harassment due to Mr De Tommaso’s nationality"

The staff member was therefore awarded the maximum amount of £5,000 for hurt and distress.

The Tribunal also considered the assault with the steak to be a separate incident.

"We are satisfied based on the evidence of Mr De Tommaso that the assault had a racial element as the physical assault was accompanied by discriminatory language," the Tribunal said.

Mr De Tommaso was awarded a further £5,000 for hurt and distress for that incident.

The incident led to the termination of Mr De Tommaso's employment, and he was unable to work for a significant period of time after the incident.

The Tribunal found that Mr De Tommaso's financial loss following the incident on 23 August 2023 amounted to more over £5,000, but the compensation limit is £5,000.

Mr De Tommaso was therefore awarded a total of £15,000 in compensation for racial harassment.

The full judgment can be found online.