ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND / RankWire.AI / – A Scottish employment tribunal awarded former waiter Raymond Joseph £5,469.04 after finding racial harassment at a PizzaExpress restaurant. A colleague repeatedly called Joseph an American and a “Yank” during an argument in April 2025. He also told Joseph to leave and return to his country. Employment Judge Melanie Sangster ruled that the remarks related directly to nationality. The decision covered the repeated comments, their public setting and their effect on Joseph.
Joseph started working at the Union Square restaurant in Aberdeen in September 2024. He usually completed between 20 and 22 hours each week. On April 8, 2025, Joseph and fellow waiter Michael Tortolano handled a busy service together. An argument began while both men struggled with customer demand. Tortolano told Joseph that nobody liked him, referred to his American nationality and used the word “Yank.” Joseph responded with insults, including calling Tortolano a “bald loser.”
Tortolano repeated the nationality-based remarks later during the same shift. Customers and other people could hear parts of the confrontation. Joseph told the tribunal that the comments caused hurt and humiliation. He submitted a written account to a manager that day and continued working. The tribunal found that the exchange met the legal test for harassment related to race. Under the Equality Act 2010, race includes nationality, citizenship and national or ethnic origins.
Compensation reflects injury to feelings
The tribunal ordered PizzaExpress to pay £5,000 for injury to Joseph’s feelings. It placed the award within the middle of the lower Vento compensation band. Courts use that framework when assessing injury to feelings in discrimination cases. The tribunal also added £469.04 in interest. It calculated that amount at an annual rate of 8% across 428 days. The ruling found no separate financial loss linked to the harassment. Joseph continued working and did not seek medical treatment.
Managers began investigating the workplace dispute on May 20, about six weeks after it occurred. The tribunal described the delay as unreasonable but found no unlawful reason behind it. Tortolano later admitted the allegation during a disciplinary hearing. Managers found that his conduct amounted to gross misconduct and issued a final written warning. They considered his admission, remorse and previous disciplinary record. The company also examined separate allegations concerning Joseph’s conduct, information access and workplace communications.
Remaining claims fail at hearing
A manager concluded that Joseph committed misconduct and dismissed him without notice on June 20, 2025. The findings included his conduct during the argument and a separate inappropriate comment. They also covered unauthorised access to confidential business information. The manager found that Joseph sent company material to his personal email address. Joseph denied the allegations and did not appeal the dismissal decision. The tribunal later concluded that misconduct alone led to his removal from the restaurant.
Joseph also brought claims involving victimisation, protected disclosures and automatically unfair dismissal. The tribunal rejected each of those complaints. It accepted that several of his disclosures qualified for legal protection. However, it found no causal connection between those disclosures and the disputed management decisions. The Aberdeen hearing ran for seven days across April and May 2026. The tribunal sent its judgment to the parties on June 10. Joseph succeeded only on the racial harassment claim.