Food firm fined over Polish worker discrimination
A female Polish employee at a food manufacturing plant in
Northern Ireland has won £50,000 in damages after her employer was
found guilty of allowing sexual and racial discrimination to
occur.
Marzena Urnbanska-Kopowska worked at Mac’s Quality Foods between
September 2006 and July 2008. During her time at the company she
was sexually harassed by a fellow Polish worker and was also
racially discriminated against by another employee of the firm from
the local area.
The employment tribunal found that the employee’s attempts to
inform her employer about the problems were ignored and that,
eventually, she was unfairly dismissed.
The court heard how the Polish co-worker had stripped to his
underwear in front of Ms Urnbanska-Kopowska every day and had also
inappropriately touched her at the company Christmas dinner.
With regard to the racial discrimination, the tribunal found
that she was asked to perform demeaning jobs that the local staff
were not asked to undertake. She was also sworn at in Polish by her
Northern Irish manager.
Ms Urnbanska-Kopowska’s employer was also found guilty of
constructive dismissal as, in the world of her lawyer John McShane,
"It got so bad she felt she had no other choice but to resign."