30th May 2024
Employment Tribunal: Professor’s Remark About Sushi Not Racist.
A claim for direct race discrimination has failed after a Japanese language and translation specialist accused her line manager of harassment, bullying and unfair treatment on the basis of her ethnicity.
In September 2021, University of London Professor Nana Sato-Rossberg alleged that her boss, Provost Claire Ozanne, raised the subject of Japanese food and that her family likes this cuisine and that they eat sushi. She filed an internal complaint as a result, charging Ozanne with ‘unconsciously biased behaviour.’ ‘Sato-Rossberg took exception to this,’ the hearing was told. She told the tribunal: ‘She [Prof Ozanne] would not have said to a German person, ‘I like sausage’. ‘If Prof Ozanne wished to make conversation, we had many commonalities through our work and professional academic endeavour’. After this complaint, along with several additional complaints by Professor Nana Sato-Rossberg alleging race discrimination, race harassment, victimisation, and protected disclosure detriment was denied, the professor took the matter up with the UK’s Employment Tribunal.
In April, Employment Judge Brown dismissed the professor’s claims that there was unlawful harassment or discrimination, saying it was unreasonable.
‘The tribunal decided that Ozanne mentioning a sushi restaurant and her family’s love of sushi was not a detriment because a reasonable person would not consider themselves at a disadvantage when a manager, trying to be friendly and find common ground, was enthusiastic about food from the person’s country of origin,’ the final report on the case said.
‘A reasonable person would not take offense at such complimentary and friendly words. In this case, Ozanne’s words were not even ‘unfortunate’. They were not reasonably seen as hurtful or misjudged,’ the Tribunal continued. “On the contrary, [Prof Sato-Rossberg’s] objection reflected [her] own hypersensitivity and predisposition to find fault with Ms Ozanne.’
Referring to the comment about the Sushi restaurant, the judgment said that Ozanne said this knowing that the claimant was Japanese and believing she would receive this positively. ‘She was making small talk and trying to establish a point of shared interest. Ms Ozanne said nothing detrimental about Japan,’ the judge said.
It is clear that the employment tribunal has favoured a pragmatic approach in this scenario however, it is always advisable for employees to look for other topics of discussion to engage with other employees to prevent any offence being caused.
You can read more on the judgement here.
