What does one racist comment cost?

What does one racist comment cost?


In Kemeh v The Ministry of Defence, Mr Kemeh, a British Army cook, was told to “shut up you dumb black bastard” by his immediate line manager, Sergeant Simmons, a senior NCO during the course of a conversation about a football match. Following a complaint by Mr Kemeh, the incident was dealt with by Captain Lindsay. Subsequently Mr Kemeh brought a claim to the Employment Tribunal, which found in his favour and awarded him £12,000, a middle band award.

Certain aggravating and mitigating factors were considered as part of the decision to award this sum. These included the fact that Mr Kemeh did not investigate the incident properly, that Mr Simmons’ apology was not considered to be remorseful as it could have been and only came about following Captain Lindsay’s intervention and although the MoD itself gave Mr Kemeh an apology, it was only given at the Employment Tribunal itself, after Mr Kemeh had given evidence.

The MoD appealed the level of the award and it was reduced to £6,000 (a lower band award) by the EAT. The Court of Appeal agreed with that reduction, stating:

This was not a discriminatory act resulting in dismissal or refusing a job application. It was an offensive comment. I see no justification for a one-off incident of this nature being placed within the middle category. There were some aggravating features identified by the Employment Tribunal (but also some mitigating ones), but in my view the EAT gave ample credit for those when placing the figure at the top of the lower band.”