An employment judge’s remark that swearing is common ‘particularly in the North’ has catapulted a wrongful dismissal verdict into national headlines.
Employment Judge Jetinder Shergill heard that Robert Ogden, who worked at wholesale provider Booker Ltd, had been the subject of a bullying complaint by a female colleague in August last year.
The woman, described by the judge as the victim, alleged that while in the office she had been involved in discussion with others about doughnuts and attending a weight loss club, the Employment Tribunal at Manchester heard.
Ogden accepted that he said to the victim: ‘Becky you can’t do that, are you a f***ing m***? no wonder it takes you 19 weeks to lose a stone, it hasn’t taken me 19 weeks.’
The victim said the comments made her feel humiliated in front of the managers and staff that were in the office at the time she said she felt ‘violated and shocked’.
Booker dismissed Ogden – who had worked as a driver and trainer and had been with the company since 2016 – in October last years for gross misconduct due to breaching the company’s dignity at work policy.
Shergill ruled Ogden had indeed made the inappropriate comments, stating: ‘I am satisfied that swearing should not be acceptable in a workplace, although common everyday experience, particularly in the North is that the F word is used quite often spoken in the public sphere.’
Ogden denied ‘m***’ was used as a reference to people with Downs Syndrome and said it is a common Northern term referring to stupid.
The ruling received wide coverage in the national press, including a leading article in The Times. However contrary to some reports, the judge did not decide the case in Ogden’s favour because swearing is more common in the North. Indeed, the use of the language would have been a prima facie breach of workplace discipline in most workplaces, the judge ruled.
But Judge Shergill said the dismissal was unfair after finding there was a ‘toxic culture’ in the office in Royton, Oldham and that it was ‘lawless’ with no real enforcement of expected workplace norms by managers.
Judge Shergill addded: ‘The claimant had not been pulled up before over comments, and this likely led to a false sense of security in terms of it not being a disciplinary issue.
‘The free-for-all in the office suggested the claimant was the one who was without a chair when the music stopped’, Judge Shergill said. The case will proceed to an assessment of quantum.