A cleaner working at Nando’s demanded a £20,000 settlement after he saw a chef drop a burger on the floor and then serve it to a customer, a tribunal heard.
Martin Kumi flagged the incident in a work group chat at the chicken restaurant. He then raised the incident in person with a colleague and covertly recorded the conversation.
As a result, the member of staff who dropped the burger before serving it at Nando’s Soho branch was issued with a written warning, the tribunal heard.
But days later Mr Kumi submitted a “lengthy complaint” and demanded a £20,000 settlement for a number of issues including - he alleged - mistreatment due to him raising the dropped burger incident.
The hearing was told he had recorded a series of conversations and once he had gathered “evidence” he tried to sue Nando’s for sex discrimination and whistleblowing after working there for just nine days.
‘Extensive’ recordings
However, all claims failed as the tribunal judge believed he had “engineered his claim from the start” and it was a “blatant abuse” of the tribunal process.
The judge stated there was no reasonable explanation for such “extensive” recordings when he had just started a new job, and he told Mr Kumi he intended to “make yourself a nuisance” to “negotiate a pay off”.
Mr Kumi admitted he might have asked for “too much”.
The London Central tribunal heard Mr Kumi, who began working for the Soho branch of the South African fast food chain on Aug 18 2021, also allegedly made a female member of staff feel “very uncomfortable”.
She later made a formal complaint about sexual harassment.
Mr Kumi also recorded a meeting with a male coworker two days after the warning over the burger was issued, in which the colleague said “see you later love” but then clarified he was joking, and he said “love” to everyone.
In the time that followed, he had several meetings about his poor performance which he blamed on his bad training.
In one, the male general manager referred to him as “my dear” and “darling”.
In another, which Mr Kumi also recorded, a female colleague said he was “slithery” when he sat too close to her.
‘Engineered’ the complaints
She told the tribunal that she felt he was “being difficult on purpose, deviating from the subject and trying to avoid taking accountability for the task he was required to do” and she felt “uncomfortable”.
On Aug 31 he said he would take three days off work because of his diabetes, but a week later submitted a “lengthy complaint” and demanded £20,000.
He then resigned on Sept 28 2021 without having returned to work, and filed a tribunal claim against Nando’s Chickenland Ltd.
Mr Kumi told the tribunal it would be “wrong and malicious” to lie about what had happened.
But the judge ruled he had “engineered” the complaints “from the start” in the nine days he had worked there.
It was also discovered he was running multiple tribunal proceedings at the same time.
The judge said he acted “vexatiously” and it was a “blatant abuse of the tribunal process”.
Nando’s was approached for comment.
