Mr S Fofana v Window Widgets Limited RECORD OF A PRELIMINARY HEARING — 2025

At the preliminary hearing on 21 January 2025, the tribunal heard the respondent's application to strike out Mr S Fofana's direct race discrimination and harassment related to race claims under sections 13 and 26 of the Equality Act 2010. The claims arose from a graffitied label in the warehouse reading 'SLAVE NO' above a large number 3, which the claimant understood as 'slave number 3'. He said he felt targeted because he was the only black man in the warehouse, did not raise the matter on 18 December 2023 or afterwards, and resigned in early January 2024 without citing it as a reason. The respondent said the graffiti had been left by a former employee in 2022 as anti-modern slavery protest graffiti, was not a reference to historical enslavement, and had been missed by maintenance.

Applying rule 38(1)(a) of the Employment Tribunal Procedure Rules 2024, and the two-stage approach confirmed in Hasan v Tesco Stores Ltd, the tribunal held that the high threshold for strike out was not met. It accepted that the harassment claim was arguable: the claimant might prove unwanted conduct, 'slave' could objectively be derogatory to black people, and the effect and reasonableness of any hostile environment would need evidence. For direct race discrimination, the tribunal said the claimant would have difficulty because the respondent said it did not know about the label, but that remained a factual dispute for the final hearing. The respondent's application was refused, so neither claim was struck out and no remedy was awarded at this stage.