Telling someone with a foreign accent you can’t understand them could be racial discrimination

[Pelican Press 0]

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Telling someone with a foreign accent you can’t understand them could be ******* discrimination

Telling someone with a foreign accent you can’t understand them could be

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, a senior tribunal judge has said.

Commenting on or criticising the way someone from another country or ******* group speaks could breach employment law, Judge James Tayler said.

The senior circuit judge of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) made the ruling following a case about a university worker who sued when she received criticism over her “strong” Brazilian accent.

Elaine Carozzi took the University of Hertfordshire to an employment tribunal, claiming she

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over comments about her accent.

Although the marketing manager had a good grasp of the English language, managers at the institution had allegedly struggled to understand what she was saying.

Elaine Carozzi say the team ‘didn’t want to invite me to important meetings and events’ in part because of her ‘very strong accent’

Her claims were dismissed by a 2021 tribunal in Watford but she has now won a legal battle to have part of her case reheard as the EAT found that there were mistakes in its decision.

Judge Tayler found that the original panel “erred in law” when it found that the University of Hertfordshire did not racially harass Ms Carozzi.

He suggested that comments about not understanding someone with a foreign accent could still be harassment because an accent may be “an important part of a person’s national or ******* identity”.

“Comments about a person’s accent could be related to the

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,” he said at the appeal tribunal.

‘Violate dignity’

The judge said that criticism of such an accent could “violate dignity” and could therefore be harassment – however, this would depend on a number of considerations and the individual case.

The original tribunal heard that Ms Carozzi made a catalogue of allegations against the university, including that Annabel Lucas, her manager, discriminated against her.

Ms Carozzi was on probation at the university after joining in December 2017, but said the probation kept getting extended over concerns about her communication – allegedly due in part to her pronunciation.

She told the original tribunal that over 13 months, Ms Lucas made derogatory remarks about her attitude, culture and Brazilian accent.

‘I have a Brazilian accent’

”[Ms Lucas] told me that ‘the team’ was having issues with my ‘very strong accent’, and therefore they didn’t want to invite me to important meetings and events,” Ms Carozzi said at the time.

“I have a Brazilian accent. I can’t change my background, my ethnicity and my national origins,” she added.

When asked why Ms Lucas was not comfortable taking Ms Carozzi to external meetings, she said it was not because of her accent but because of the content of what she was saying.

Ms Lucas said the content of what Ms Carozzi had been saying was separate from her accent, and that it had often been “confusing” which made it difficult for her and other team members to “get a grasp” on what she was doing.

Nothing to do ‘with her race’

All of Ms Carozzi’s claims were dismissed by the original tribunal in 2021 but the EAT has now said it made mistakes in some of its judgments.

In one of the mistakes, the initial tribunal was told Ms Lucas said at a probation meeting for the marketing manager: “You have a very strong accent, and although your English language is very good it can be difficult for you to be understood, and this is an issue when your role [is] one of communication, engagement and partnership.”

The original tribunal ruled “Ms Carozzi’s accent had nothing whatsoever to do with her race” and that Ms Lucas’s comments did not harass her.

However, Judge Tayler said this was a mistake because while race didn’t “motivate” the comments, it was still connected to it and was therefore potentially harassment.

The judge also said the original tribunal made mistakes in two other judgments, one relating to a claim about Ms Carozzi’s accent and another about victimisation.

Concluding, Judge Tayler said these three complaints should be heard by a new tribunal.

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#Telling #foreign #accent #understand #******* #discrimination

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