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The Telegraph
The Telegraph
National
Telegraph reporters

Diversity officer guilty of racism after telling colleague ‘you must have been oppressed’

statue of justice
statue of justice

A diversity officer racially discriminated against a mixed race colleague at broadcaster Sky by telling her she must have been “oppressed” because of her Latina heritage, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Jane Bradbury was left “distressed” after Rosemary Cook made the remark as she prepared to deliver a presentation about racism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Ms Cook, an Inclusion Advocate for Sky In-Home Services, was immediately challenged after she made the assumption about the “oppression” Mrs Bradbury must have experienced in her life, the hearing was told.

Following the conversation, Mrs Bradbury, 50, became “very upset” and self-conscious about her skin colour, causing her to take several days off work as she was worried about being treated differently because of her race, the tribunal heard.

Now, the field engineer has successfully sued Sky In-Home Services for race discrimination and has been awarded £14,000 in compensation.

The tribunal ruled that though Ms Cook had not meant to cause offence, the remark was “blunt” and an assumption that amounted to stereotyping.

The hearing was told Mrs Bradbury joined Sky as a Customer Advisor in 2010.

In March 2018 she moved to the broadcasting giant’s In-Home Services department as part of its first cohort of female trainees taking part in a new “Women in Home Service” scheme dedicated to getting more women engineers.

She is believed to have been based in Stockport, Greater Manchester.

The tribunal heard that by September 2018, Mrs Bradbury – who was adopted and raised by white parents – had qualified as a field engineer and later became an Inclusion Advocate with Ms Cook.

In June 2020, she was left upset when Ms Cook rang her to discuss her views on the presentation she was preparing to give on issues of inclusion and diversity.

“It was not specifically about race discrimination but that featured as it was taking place against the relatively recent murder of George Floyd in the US, and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Mrs Bradbury stated that she did not agree with the terms of all of the slides she was told about, although at that time she did not have access to them.

“She had seen many of the slides earlier but new slides for the presentation had been developed by Ms Cook, which included slides to promote discussion on issues of systemic racism, amongst other matters.

“Ms Cook explained those slides. Ms Cook said to Mrs Bradbury words to the effect that she would have suffered oppression because of her race, and the colour of her skin.

“Mrs Bradbury expressed her views to the contrary, forcefully,” the panel was told.

‘Caused understandable distress’

After raising the issue with bosses, Mrs Bradbury was told she was being removed from her role as an Inclusion Advocate to protect her “emotional well-being”.

She was later sacked for gross misconduct following an investigation that was launched when she failed to self-isolate after returning from Spain on a holiday in breach of government guidelines.

At the employment tribunal, she lost claims of unfair dismissal relating to her sacking as well as a claim of sex discrimination. However, she won a claim of race discrimination for Ms Cook’s comments.

In its ruling, the panel said Ms Cook’s remark did amount to discrimination although it added she did not deliberately use offensive language nor attempt to cause harm.

“Ms Cook appears to have assumed that, as Mrs Bradbury’s skin colour is not white, she must have suffered oppression, which is a form of stereotyping.

“We considered that the remark and the manner in which it was handled by Sky In-Home Services did amount to less favourable treatment. It caused Mrs Bradbury understandable distress.”

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