Mr J Pereira v Saipem Ltd — 2020

Mr J Pereira brought claims of direct race discrimination and race-related harassment against Saipem Ltd arising from his short engagement as a contract Geotechnical Engineer between 6 September 2018 and 7 November 2018. The tribunal found that his contract was terminated because of poor performance, not because of race, and that the claimant's complaint was in substance about dismissal rather than established discriminatory treatment. It also recorded that Mr Der Hakobian considered the claimant under-prepared for the role and that the claimant had not done the pre-reading expected of him.

On the alleged incidents, the tribunal accepted that Mr Der Hakobian swore at the claimant and noted that he was later disciplined, but found the swearing was caused by frustration with the claimant's under-performance and was not because of race. It rejected the allegations that the claimant was told to "shoo", that he was called Ram Babu, that he was compared to Ram Babu in a racially derogatory way, or that he was asked whether it was "Indian culture to be lazy?" The tribunal found the claimant's WhatsApp material did not support his case, that he lacked particulars and corroboration, and that the evidence from the open-plan office did not support the alleged repeated comments.

The tribunal also rejected the complaint about Mr Hadjinicolaou asking the claimant to eat his breakfast in the kitchen. It found this was based on a rule that sloppy food such as porridge and soup should be eaten in the kitchen, not at a desk, and had nothing whatsoever to do with race. Applying the authorities it cited on burden of proof and harassment, including Igen v Wong, Madarassy v Nomura International plc, Hewage v Grampian Health Board and Richmond Pharmacology v Dhaliwal, the tribunal held that none of the allegations were proved on the balance of probabilities and dismissed the claim in full.