AN ASIAN WAGES CLERK KEPT QUIET FOR MONTHS BEFORE

AN ASIAN WAGES CLERK KEPT QUIET FOR MONTHS BEFORE COMPLAINING

ABOUT A FELLOW COUNCIL WORKER WHO REFERRED TO BLACKS AS MONKEYS, AN

INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL HEARD TODAY (THU).

MRS VERSHA PATEL TOLD THE TRIBUNAL THAT SHE HAD ‘TRIED TO KEEP

HER HEAD DOWN’ DESPITE THE INSULTS FROM ANOTHER CLERK, MRS

SHIRLEY SCOTT.

SHE SAID THAT 39 YEAR OLD MRS SCOTT OFTEN REFERRED TO BLACKS

AND ASIANS PASSING THE OFFICE AS ‘MONKEYS’.

AND SHE ADDED THAT MRS SCOTT, WHO WAS SACKED FOR RACISM IN

OCTOBER LAST YEAR, ENCOURAGED OTHER EMPLOYEES TO TAKE A SIMILAR

ATTITUDE.

MRS PATEL, OF WALTHAMSTOW, DENIED SHE HAD BEEN

OUT TO MAKE TROUBLE.

‘WHY SHOULD I BE LOOKING FOR TROUBLE EVEN IF IT WAS MY WEAK

POINT, WHY SHOULD I LOOK FOR TROUBLE.

I JUST TRIED TO KEEP MY HEAD

DOWN’.

MRS PATEL SAID THE LAST STRAW CAME WHEN MRS SCOTT REFERRED

TO HER AS ‘YOU KNOW WHO’ DURING A TELEPHONE CONVERSATION WITH HER

SISTER.

‘IT WAS THE LAST STRAW.

I JUST COULDN’T TAKE ANY MORE’, SHE

TOLD THE WOBURN PLACE TRIBUNAL.

MRS PATEL DENIED A SUGGESTION FROM MRS SCOTT’S COUNSEL MR

CHRISTOPHER SWIFT THAT SHE HAD ‘MISHEARD, MISUNDERSTOOD OR POSSIBLY

GIVEN A FALSE ACCOUNT’ OF EVENTS AT THE HARINGEY WAGES OFFICE IN

TOTTENHAM.

BUT SHE ADDED: ‘I WOULDN’T HAVE HAD TO PUT UP WITH ALL MY

PROBLEMS IF MRS SCOTT HAD LEFT’.

MRS SCOTT, OF WHITE HART LANE, TOTTENHAM, IS CLAIMING

COMPENSATION FOR UNFAIR DISMISSAL BY HARINGEY COUNCIL SAYING THAT THE

ALLEGATIONS AGAINST HER ARE ‘A PUT UP JOB’.

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CENTRAL NEWS 33 GOODGE ST W1 323 2899

RACIST .