The Free Speech Union racked up another significant legal victory at the employment tribunal (ET) last month, securing what promises to be a significant pay-out for a dyslexic Lloyds bank manager sacked in a free speech row.
Carl Borg-Neal, 57, was unfairly dismissed and subject to disability discrimination when Lloyds Bank sacked him for using a racial slur during a workplace-based diversity training session. He is now likely to recover damages for past loss of earnings, future loss of earnings, a pensions award, compensation for discrimination and compensation for personal injury, all amounting to a significant sum.
In July 2021, Mr. Borg-Neal was one of around 100 senior Lloyds managers who logged on to an online training session entitled ‘Race Education for Line Managers’. Provided by an external organisation, the training formed part of the bank’s ‘Race Action Plan’, launched in the wake of George Floyd’s death the previous year.
Carl had worked for Lloyds Bank for 27 years without issue, was popular among colleagues, and had risen to a highly technical managerial role at head office. Far from being indifferent to racial equality, he had recently joined a new scheme mentoring young colleagues from ethnic minorities and was working with three mentees, one of African descent, one of Asian descent and one of European (non-U.K.) descent.
At the start of the session, the trainer read out a script that established the parameters for what was to follow. “When we talk about race, people often worry about saying the wrong thing,” she said. “Please understand that today is your opportunity to practice, learn and be clumsy… The goal is to start talking, so please speak freely, and forgive yourself and others when being clumsy today.”
At a relevant point during a subsequent discussion on “intent vs effect”, Mr. Borg-Neal decided to take the trainer’s statement at face-value and “speak freely”. Thinking partly about rap music, he asked how as a line manager he should handle a situation where he heard someone from an ethnic minority use a word that might be considered offensive if used by a white person. Met with a puzzled look from the trainer, he added, “The most common example being use of the word n***** in the black community.”
Carl didn’t receive a response to his ‘clumsy’ question. In fact, he was angrily berated by the trainer. He tried to apologise for any offence, but was told if he spoke again he would be thrown off the course.
Other managers on the course complained that Carl’s question never received an answer – indeed, anonymous feedback collated after the session suggests the trainer’s behaviour was not particularly well-received. “I was shocked by the manner and tone used by one presenter to a colleague,” said a respondent. “After saying at the beginning this would be a safe environment and [acknowledging] we may make mistakes, she launched into a vitriolic attack… I believe [Mr. Borg-Neal] was trying to ask a valid question to aid understanding.”
After the course, the trainer claimed she was so offended by use of the n-word that she was too sick to work and took five days off. The provider then complained to Lloyds Bank.
It was the fact that the trainer needed to take time off that triggered an investigation, with the bank subsequently accusing Carl of racism and launching a disciplinary process that led to his dismissal for gross misconduct.
After 27 years, his career lay in tatters.
Following an unsuccessful attempt to appeal Lloyds’ decision, Carl joined the Free Speech Union. Having reviewed the case, we instructed Doyle Clayton – an expert firm of employment solicitors – who brought a claim against Lloyds Bank in the Tribunal.
Something that emerged particularly strongly from the hearing was the extent to which Lloyds focused on Mr. Carl Borg-Neal’s use of the n-word in isolation, irrespective of the context in which he’d used it.
For instance, the initial HR caseworker talked to colleagues from the bank’s Inclusion and Diversity team “to understand the impact of the word used on session attendees”. The disciplinary Hearing Manager then spoke to witnesses “to understand the impact of use of the term on the facilitator”. During the appeal process, the new Hearing Manager also focused on the impact that use of the n-word had had on the individual carrying out the training.
It was on the basis of this semantic fixation that the bank could concede that Mr. Borg-Neal had not intended to cause any hurt, that he asked the question with no malice, and that the question itself was valid, but then still dismiss him for gross misconduct. The bank’s argument was that Mr, Borg-Neal should have known better than “to use the full word in a professional environment”.
However, thanks to top-drawer representation from Doyle Clayton, the panel was steered towards an appreciation of the wider context in which the n-word had been uttered.
Explaining its unanimous decision to rule the dismissal unfair, the panel noted variously that: the incident had taken place during a race education session, and specifically during a discussion of “intent versus impact”; it was a well-intentioned relevant question regarding how to handle a situation of racially offensive language in the workplace; there was no suggestion that he was taking an opportunity to say an abusive term under cover of a question; and his dyslexia affected his ability to formulate his question carefully.
Lloyds argued that Mr. Borg-Neal had demonstrated a lack of concern for the impact of his actions on others. According to the Hearing Manager, it was “because of the absence of any deeper acceptance as to why [Mr. Borg-Neal’s] use of the word was so inappropriate [that it was] difficult to make the case that action short of dismissal such as further training or removing [him] from a position of influence as a role model would be sufficient”.
The panel was distinctly unimpressed with this line of reasoning. “This is an unusual distinction given that the claimant had repeatedly apologised,” they wrote. “He told [the Hearing Manager] that he understood in hindsight that the trainer could be upset. He said a friend had told him use of the word was inappropriate and ‘I get that now’. He said he understood his conduct had fallen below expectation. One wonders what was expected of him.”
At the forthcoming remedy hearing, Mr. Borg-Neal is expected to get a high six-figure compensation award.
Stop Press: If you’re thinking of joining the Free Speech Union, now is a good time to join because its membership fees are going up on September 15th. Anyone joining before that date will not be charged the higher rate for at least one year, meaning they can also renew their membership at the current low rate. To join for as little as £2.49 a month, click here.
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Translating the manager-speak into English yields We had to sack the innocent victim of our contractor because he was clearly an innocent victim.
And he was White. If he was Black applause would have erupted and the Burn Loot Murder fist displayed.
Blacks do use the n-word all the time in their colloquial speech.
Does that make them racist?
Is Homey or Homeboy also racist ?
How about Oreo?
Or Gammon?
well done..
What is so bloody obvious is that this should never have happened…
…Firstly and very obviously a person shouldn’t be hired as a race educator if they find words to do with race or education threatening or so bad they have to have a week in bed!! Unbelievable!
Second, having looked at the evidence..and the gross over-reaction….what cretin decided it needed to go any further?..and exactly how many more cretins were in the hierarchy as it marched its way upwards?? Why haven’t they been named and shamed?
…and third, something I have said many times…who is the pathetic person who was incapable of being an adult, doing their job and who needed a week off?
We should be told their name…I am sick of these people starting these attacks on other people’s livelihoods and reputations, seemingly eager to ruin people’s lives while they hide behind anonymity?
Firstly and very obviously a person shouldn’t be hired as a race educator if they find words to do with race or education threatening or so bad they have to have a week in bed!! Unbelievable!
The real job of this race educator aka CRT consomething (better avoid misgendering it) is to yell at white people older than it that they’re guilty being white and demand that they have to do something about this. As that’s inherently a scam, it has to be maintained by vicious playacting. Nobody believes this entity suffered anything from having been presented with such a golden opportunity to do his real job — make sure those mid-level managers know who has the power to harm them.
Quite agree. The person was obviously unfit for the role but also, you have to ask yourself, how do such people even get through life? If you’re going to be that traumatized by a word ( they weren’t, they were just taking the pish and wanting to skive ) then you really do need to work on your coping mechanisms for going about daily life as an autonomous and responsible adult who’s job it is to interact with all sorts of people, therefore I think they should be laid off and sent for a mental health assessment because they sound completely pathetic and not the full shilling.
LOL! 100%! You have to wonder what happens if everything doesn’t go their way..no milk for breakfast..week in bed!
Someone gives them the V sign as they are driving..week in bed….!
partner falls out with them..week in bed!
God knows how long they’ve have to have off if something serious happened!!!???
Yes well if even Macbeth is now deemed racist this guy saying the ‘N’ word hasn’t got a hope in hell of getting away with it. Stop the crazy bus, I want to get off!
”In the latest instalment of ‘Anti-Racist Shakespeare’ webinars hosted by the Bard’s Globe Theatre in London, assistant professor of English at Trinity University in Texas Kathryn Vomero Santos declared that the language in Macbeth demonstrates the alleged racial bias of the 17th century playwright.
According to comments reported by the Daily Mail, Vomero Santos claimed in the discussion that the use of words such as bat, beetle, black, and night could be seen as examples of “racialised” language in the play that examines the corrupting nature of power.
Pointing to a scene in which the lead character is referred to as “black Macbeth”, the American academic reportedly said: “I think that it’s important to help our students to see the ways in which a play we might not recognise immediately as a ‘race play’ is relying on racialised language and playing on the dichotomy of whiteness and blackness and dark and light.”
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/09/03/shakespeares-macbeth-branded-as-racist-for-themes-like-darkness/
Oh, ffs. That Santos woman should be put on a dhingy and left in the Channel. For our safety.
It’s amazing that people with such a crude and simplistic worldview command so much influence, especially in Academistan. Apparently, it never occurred to this always electrically lighted dingbat that the reason why darkness is associated with evils and dangers is that the night is a mysterious and dangerous period of the day to people who rely mostly on their eyes to gain vitally important information about their surroundings. She’d probably regard that as exactly the other way round: To her, black wouldn’t signal danger because nights are black and dangerous but nights would be called black by racists because racists always associate black with bad. And – of course – people celebrating sunrise as the start of the new day wouldn’t celebrate the return of the light which is critically important to them – Light comes from electricity, dude, try fooling someone else! – but celebrate blackness being overcome by whiteness because of their racism.
I still think we should urgently return to Nietzsche’s Was geht mich das Geschwätz amerikanischer Wirr- und Flachköpfe an! (Amercian muddleheads blathering doesn’t concern me in the slightest!)
The irony is that these people are not capable of reading the whole text to which they object!
So all that stuff about war, lust for power, multiple murders, revenge, insanity, suicide – all white on white action, don’t forget – pales into insignificance because Duncan slept at night and you generally can’t see ghosts in the daytime? Who knew…
Well done the FSU – a fine organisation.
My default assumption about any large organisation, public or private, is that I would be unable to work for them as I would fail the induction. I am lucky that I am close to retirement and will not need to look for another job.
Agreed. I suspect that this is a factor in so many nearly-retired people who can afford it, not to bother seeking employment after the Covid Lockdowns.
They don’t want to play the woke games.
This story is completely surreal and shows haw badly in trouble we are.
1. It no longer surprises or offends anyone that a group of people are rounded up, implicitly accused of being racists and bigots and forced to receive re-education on the subject. That alone is just mind boggling and sickening.
2. It seems no one thought to challenge this “trainer” about who they were and what exactly gave them the right or authority to lecture another set of adults on the subject.of racism. I can only imagine what bullshit credential the person might have had.
The insane over reaction and lynching of the Lloyds employee could only have happened if those first two completely mad circumstances were allowed to take place.
And his defence was that he wasn’t trying to be offensive? For god sakes, the man has been insulted every step of the way, from the moment he was rounded up and assumed to be racist right to when he was dismissed. And he, the only one who was actually innocent of anything is the one crucified.
We”ve gone completely insane as a society.
Very well put. Forcing people who’ve always done their jobs to everyone’s satisfaction (within the usual limits), including that they always treated their colleagues and subordinates of doubtlessly many different ethnic backgrounds in the proper way into such courses on a presumption of inherently guilty whiteness is a form of abuse.
That is a fine post and needed to be made.
Why did he apologies? Why did Lloyds consider it very important to humiliate it’s staff with this training following the manslaughter of a Mr Floyd in another country on another continent? Did Lloyds think it’s staff complicit?
I would like to find a bank that does NOT do DIE training for it’s staff.
The whole point of all this nonsense is to get you riled. Obviously they know its stupid. There is nowhere left for them to go. Imagine yourself as a member of a cornered elite without an exit ramp. Consider the desperate shenanigans that you will foster or manufacture in the final hours. It was never going to be pretty. You have to turn up to work with an inhibited gag reflex because that’s where we are in terms of their attacks on us. The best response is calm and equanimity because that just makes them more exasperated.
A while back now, a black musician/band (I forget who) invited a white woman up on stage to sing along to a favourite track.
The track happened to contain the dreaded-N, and the moment she sang that lyric they stopped with ‘woah, woah, woah, you can’t say that. I think the crowd got involved too. That was a pure ambush and made me so angry for the double standards on display.
I like Cyprus Hill, “Insane in the Membrane” and I sing all the words, including that one. I’m not making a radio-friendly edit, it’s the damn song so I’ll sing it, but perhaps not at full volume in the street.
I also might not repeat a Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy joke. I’m not that insensitive. But I’d certainly laugh at one.
But this guy’s question was reasonable and insightful, and addressed the double-standards mentioned here.
You have this category of ‘black man’ who is supposed to be ever so aggrieved. If you’ve grown up in a British city black or white you can look at this crap and conclude that it is nonsense or written by aliens. It has no relationship to real life. The future is analog big time you can see that in buying trends because mass consciousness understands on some level that this is all crap.
If this story was in a fictional novel or drama, you’d think it’s too implausible.
Does anyone believe this claim?:
“After the course, the trainer claimed she was so offended by use of the n-word that she was too sick to work and took five days off.”
Yep. It’s like something out of a cheesy Victorian melodrama when the fey female character gets a fit of the vapours because her corset is too tight or something. Abso-bl**dy-lutely pathetic.
Five days…. she should have been given this. It would have sorted the silly woman out in no time.
https://www.expresschemist.co.uk/MacKenzies-Smelling-Salts-17ml.html?msclkid=912f1451458415ad2c2170a7a5ea35ee
Reverse impostor syndrome: Everyone, including herself, knows she’s just faking it. But as political correctness demands that nobody’s allowed to point this out, it works. One should also take into account that yelling abuse at strangers is a very demanding job. I bet after two days, her voice is so hoarse that she just can’t yell anymore and has to take the remainder of the week off because of this.
Keep the charade going on long enough so that you can get away with all the spoils. Doesn’t matter the whole point of the deflection is to get you to look away from the real robbery. We are in the final stages. They won’t get away with the robbery but they will make life very difficult for the rest of us. That is why we need to put on the full armour of God, the breastplate of righteousness. Doesn’t matter if you believe in a deity or not just understand where we are at and the force we oppose.
“Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”
Anthony Malcolm Daniels Theodore Dalrymple
When the so-called Trainer stated at the start of the indoctrination that it was a “safe space” where people could express themselves and if they made a mistake it would be forgiven, she was effectively setting up a situation where one person would take the invitation at face value and walk into a trap.
It was deliberate.
“After the course, the trainer claimed she was so offended by use of the n-word that she was too sick to work and took five days off.”
Says it all really!
Race educator. Family and life are responsible for that.
I was fortunate. Sent to Prep school, by the age of ten I had a Jewish mate, a Muslim mate, and my best friend had a Nigerian dad (adored him. He had the best belly laugh I have EVER heard). Buttressed by parents who even back in the 50s made it clear we treated everyone the same, I needed no “education” about racism.
I now utter, in mi ‘ead, a stream of unprintable imprecations…
BTW, I’m half Paddy. Can we say that now? Or did I just insult myself?
..you sound as if you had a great early life….
but at the other end of the scale..me….born in a pit village, exceptionally white..very few other ethnicities..a few Polish…..went to a C of E Junior and senior school..again, very predominantly white…..but I was never taught to despise anyone…..and I never have..,,I think I’m very typical and ordinary….
I have always found people generally treat other people exactly the same, and have no evil or wicked intentions towards others generally..and when they do they are just nasty people..and can be of any race colour or creed…
I don’t think that anyone needs these lessons, because they aren’t about reality..or real situations…we have laws that cover that….….this is usually about some white people’s imaginings of some perceived racism….that doesn’t usually even actually exist other than in their head….and their ‘talking shops’….
It’s the same with most things….create a none-existent problem, so that you can invent a none-solution…..
Once 16, I worked when I was not being educated. Time to pay board and lodging. Motorway labour (M56 was being built south of M’cr, where I was brought up). And a great job at Robinson’s Brewery in Stockport (still a fabulous beer, still family owned). Didn’t come across any racism amongst my co-workers. Completely agree with what you write.