This is the second Tesco race case to come to my attention, and subsequently, many more have come to light. Many of the staff I meet are just too intimidated to put their stories in the public domain or do not have the mental energy and capacity to endure making a complaint that will see their working lives turned to hell. There is a problem at Tesco's. I have already written about the nightmarish case of Mr B here.
Today, I give you the story of a black woman, mother of two who I interviewed recently. Yet another Tesco employee, like Mr B, who has lodged an Employment Tribunal and occupational stress claim against Tesco stores PLC for race discrimination, victimisation and occupational stress.
Mrs A is a Black African mother of two young children who although still employed by Tesco is now facing dismissal.
Her mental and physical health is deteriorating while Tesco's continues to ignore the fact that she was subjected to an intense campaign of racist bullying and harassment and victimisation carried out by white colleagues at Tesco.
From July to November 2018, it is alleged that Mrs A, the only black employee in her workplace, made numerous informal complaints to her store manager and People Partner (a term used in Tesco's to refer to what's know more commonly as HR managers).
She complained about the behaviours of her white colleagues towards her - but once again, as in the case of Mr B, Tesco did nothing positive to assist her or treat her complaints seriously.
As a result, this made the situation even worse, and Mrs A was subjected to even more bullying, harassment, and was physically assaulted by three white Tesco colleagues.
In December of that year, Mrs A made more complaints to her manager and People Partner about racist bullying, victimisation, harassment and unfair treatment. She was promised that her claim would be treated seriously, but as is the apparent culture at Tesco's nothing was done.
Not only that Mrs A was told at one point that she had imagined the whole thing. This response is a common psychological tactic of white companies seeking to deny racism that often induces mental ill-health and stress within the victim.
In February 2019, Mrs A was verbally and physically assaulted by a white colleague. When she reported this incident to her manager, she was told: "there was nothing he could do about it as she was not injured."
This despite the assault being witnessed by other Tesco colleagues, who were present at the time of the incident and corroborated Mrs A's account of events.
In March 2019, Mrs A was left with no other option but to raise a formal grievance. Things began to escalate seriously, and at this point, the three white Tesco colleagues had physically assaulted her on three different occasions. On one occasion metal cages were pushed into her, and she was being forced out of the way when colleagues wanted to make their way past her.
On another, her personal belongings were thrown in a dustbin and finally was forced to endure comments made about white women having black babies as being unnatural.
Imagine now if you will, the isolation, the anxiety, the fear of being targeted in this way, and then having your complaints brushed aside.
The almost daily physical assaults on Mrs A became unbearable and was she was struggling mentally to cope with the unrelenting nature of these attacks. Not surprisingly, this resulted in her being signed off work by her doctor. The impact on her mental health was devastating, and protecting her from further harm caused by this toxic work environment, the doctor advised her to stay at home.
A grievance meeting was eventually held by Tesco's in April 2019 where an investigation manager told Mrs A that the colleagues in question would be suspended, given the seriousness of the offence and the substantive evidence being available, they were more than likely to be suspended immediately.
Still, again Tesco's did not follow their procedures, despite Mrs A's grievance being fully upheld.
Mrs A was told to resume work for two weeks in a different store where she was subjected to further victimisation and harassment.
Mrs A states that she was left feeling vulnerable, alone and isolated as she was not being informed about the on-going status of the investigation and was forced to work in a store where the husband of one of the three white colleagues she complained about, was a manager.
Compounding this situation was the fact that her doctor had noted she was not fit to work due to stress. No referral to occupational health was made, and no back to work risk assessment was carried out.
All this put her in a very vulnerable position that saw her mental health further deteriorate as a consequence. The new store some distance from home and made it difficult for her to manage with her two children and to get back and forth from work became difficult.
Mrs A contacted the People Partner (HR manager to me and you) by email in June 2019 to express her concerns with the whole process, being left in a different store without any communication from Tesco's for five weeks, instead of two as previously discussed. Then Tesco got vicious and deducted Mrs A's wages due to her absence. Now she was being penalised as a consequence of being a victim of racial victimisation and bullying campaign.
After raising these issues, she was invited to yet another meeting that took place in July 2019. It was here that Mrs A got to know that the disciplinary hearing had been concluded weeks prior and that unsurprisingly the white colleagues in question were not properly disciplined, nor were they suspended. Tesco had "words" with the offenders
This, even though Tesco agreed Mrs A had been a victim of racist bullying and harassment. Mrs A reported the matter to the police. The police investigation is on-going.
Mrs A could not believe it when her employer then told her to go back and work at the same store, with the same colleagues who had been found guilty by Tesco of racially discriminating against her.
Mrs A was advised by Tesco, to go back to the store and wait for it to happen again, Tesco told her that further action would be taken against the white colleagues if there was a re-occurrence!
According to my on-going research, talking to other black staff, Tesco's actions on this issue are not consistent with and indeed stands in direct contrast, according to black staff I've spoken to how Tesco has treated black staff members who have been alleged to have bullied or harassed white colleagues.
The People Partner also told Mrs A she wasn't going to be paid her deducted wages and it was only when Mrs A's trade union representative mentioned going to the Employment Tribunal that the People Partner had a change of heart.
Tesco did little to communicate or support Mrs A with her deteriorating mental health problems who was at this stage at her wit's end. She was alone, with no black staff to support her; no one understood or took her complaints seriously.
It isn't easy to comprehend how such incidents come to dominate your life completely. Every day get up to go to work in a job you need, you are faced with the taunting conspiracy of white privilege and racism.
The negative impact all of this has had on Mrs A caused her to have severe panic attacks, PTSD, sleep disorders, night sweats and other symptoms of severe mental trauma leading to her being immediately rushed to A&E, and being signed off work medically unfit to work due to depression and anxiety.
While ill and off work, Mrs A was denied any contact to escalate the matter which left her with no option but to send a grievance to the Chief Executive officer of Tesco, Dave Lewis where she made her concerns known.
The grievance was investigated and only partially upheld, however, Mrs A was bizarrely denied access to CCTV footage, (this also featured of Mr B's case and yet cameras fully cover all Tesco stores) which she believes, would have fully confirmed all of her allegations of victimisation.
Mrs A's ordeal, and, crucially, how Tesco has supported the white colleagues who committed hate crimes against Mrs A and who racially abused, victimised and harassed her and the continual institutional racism and discrimination the company subjected her too, is quite frankly scandalous.
My research indicates that these may not be isolated cases, my sense is that throughout Tesco in too many stores across the land, black staff may be being treated appallingly.
Mrs A has been left her feeling in her own words "broken, disillusioned, traumatised and devastated."
When I met Mrs A and watched as she broke down as she told me her experience, with tears streaming down her face, handshaking at the mere recollection of these events. A proud African woman, intelligent, competent now traumatised and a former shadow of herself, and all as a result of a toxic culture within Tesco's that is exemplified by White privilege and racial stereotyping.
Further events to date have seen Mrs A lodge an occupational stress claim against her employer due to the significant negative impact on her mental health, which has included a referral to a clinical psychiatrist for a detailed assessment.
This ill-health crisis suffered by Mrs A is a direct result of Tesco's management culture of institutional racism, failure to tackle hate crimes, leading to race discrimination, bullying, harassment and victimisation of black staff.
This has led to Mrs A being put on serious medication, having to undergo counselling, CBT, victim support and other forms of therapy.
Such is the management culture at Tesco's, and this is a company, let us not forget where we spend millions of pounds, in black communities across the country, every single week.
A company that publicly pledged allegiance to the black lives matter cause, that talks about its commitment to "tackling racism" and "promoting diversity" while allowing it's black staff to be victimised to such an extent that good, decent people are left shattered by the experience.
The hypocrisy of Tesco's position is revealed by the stories of Mrs A and Mr B.
Next time you go into a Tesco store, ask the Black staff how they're being treated, ask them if they're confident in reporting racism. If you know someone who works there, given we spend so much money with them, seek out his or her opinion, take the time to quality check this companies management culture.
I'm interested in finding out more about the experiences of Tesco black staff. If as I believe, these two horrendous examples could be indicative of a broader culture, then I think they should be subjected to local #BlackLivesMatter economic boycotts.
I have written to the Chief Executive of Tesco Mr Dave Lewis and have been offered, just before the lockdown, a meeting with one of his senior executives. Whilst this offer is welcomed, I don't feel that's good enough so I will be demanding a meeting with the chief executive himself to discuss these matters.
In the meantime, please send any further examples that highlight racism towards staff, and indeed customers to me at;
lee-jasper@live.com with the subject title; Retail Racism
I want to assess the extent of the problem. If this culture of oppressive management practices, appears to be widespread, then I'm suggesting we do something about it to bring community pressure on Tesco to protect and respect its black staff.
