Englishman wins Irish race case

Would you consider this "racial abuse" ? and is it common ?

I saw this happening everywhere in my office and no one took offence.


An English pipe fitter has been awarded 20,000 euro (£15,630) in compensation after being racially abused in his Irish workplace.

The man, who was based in Dublin, complained that colleagues had taunted him because of where he came from.

They would say "send the Brit in" to clear the way if they had to enter potentially dangerous spaces at work.

Negative reports about England's performance in the 2006 World Cup were also read aloud in his presence.

He said some colleagues never spoke to him and others deliberately sang Irish songs of a political nature in his presence.

The man, who asked to remain anonymous, told an equality tribunal that shortly after joining the firm in April 2006 the abuse reached a point where he ate lunch in his car instead of the canteen.

Redundancy

He claimed that two months after starting work he was made redundant instead of a less experienced Irish worker because he was British.

The tribunal was told another worker said "the Brit should be sacked and an Irishman should not be let go" when the issue arose.

He said his supervisor was intimidating and had joined in with the abuse.

The company denied allegations of harassment and said the man had never complained to his site manager about abuse.

It also said the man was laid off because he had less service than other workers on the site.

The equality tribunal found the man was racially harassed and said some of the acts complained about were of a blatant and intimidatory nature.

But it ruled the man was not chosen for redundancy because of his nationality.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7555589.stm