Teenage waitress awarded £13,048 after tribunal finds discrimination at Thurso hotel

Mixed · 2An employment tribunal in Edinburgh has awarded Daniesha Charles £13,048 in compensation after ruling she was discriminated against because of her age, sex, race and disability while working at the Royal Thurso Hotel in the Scottish Highlands. 1 2 Mixed · 2Ms Charles, now 18, was 15 and earning £7 an hour as a part-time waitress at the hotel from May to June 2024; she is Black British Caribbean, has severe dyslexia, and was the youngest and only Black female member of a mainly white British staff. 1 2 Mixed · 2The tribunal heard that on June 26 a kitchen swing door knocked a plate of apple crumble from her hand; when she went to the kitchen to ask for a replacement, the chef cut her off with "of course you did", and the chef and general manager Andy Woodcock were, in her words, "in my face shouting and swearing at me". 1 2

Mixed · 2She was left in tears and shouted at them to stop, and the men said she should "get out"; she then called her mother, Stacey Charles, who the tribunal heard found her "incoherent" and "clearly very upset", and she left the hotel and never returned. 1 2 Mixed · 2The tribunal also heard that, in May 2024, the chef swore at her for misspelling "porridge" on an order slip, which she found humiliating, and that he continuously referred to her as "that" and "it", showing contempt for her race and gender "from the outset". 1 2 Mixed · 2It heard that the chef and Mr Woodcock also shouted at each other and at South African and Nepalese staff but not at white male workers, and that Ms Charles stayed silent about the treatment so as not to jeopardise her job. 1 2

Mixed · 2After her mother complained, Mr Woodcock emailed on June 30 saying that had the hotel known of her anxiety and depression it would not have put her into this style of environment, and that the only option was to end her employment. 1 2 Mixed · 2Employment Judge Joseph d'Inverno ruled that the conduct violated her dignity and created an "intimidating, hostile, degrading and humiliating and offensive environment", and found the two men did not treat older white British male staff the same way. 1 2