As you may have seen in the news, Professor Richard Werner was recently awarded over £2.5 million for racial and religious discrimination he experienced at the University of Southampton.
Richard is the economist who coined the term ‘quantitive easing’, and spent 14 years working at the university as Professor of International Banking.
What happened
Richard claimed he was discriminated against because he is German and a Christian. He claimed he was victimised, harassed and bullied between 2010 and 2018 after he suggested improvements to the university procedures. For example, he was refused promotion, holiday pay, and a sabbatical that his colleagues were granted. He resigned in July 2018.
The reason the judge awarded the maximum amount was because officials from the university failed to counter his claims or attend the employment tribunal. Therefore, Richard’s claims of unfair dismissal, racial discrimination, religious discrimination and failure to pay a worker were all proved. (Richard earned £105,000 per year, and £136,000 of the award was for holiday pay that was due.)
If his employer had been there to argue their case, it’s likely that the payout would have been less.
The university is now applying to have the award scrapped, but it’s astonishing that they didn’t take the claim seriously in the first place.
What this means to you
If you make a claim and your employer doesn’t follow the correct procedure, it can work to your advantage.
If you’ve been mis-treated at work, we’ll advise you what to do to achieve the greatest chance of success at an employment tribunal. Just give us a call.
Need help?
For a FREE assessment of your case, call 0808 168 7288 or complete a Free Online Enquiry.
We have already helped thousands of people to win millions of pounds in compensation.
You have a choice of ways to pay, including ‘no win, no fee’.