A PHARMACY chain has been ordered to pay a former employee nearly £60,000 in compensation after a tribunal found he was racially discriminated against.

Samson Famojuro, a pharmacist of Nigerian national origin, successfully won a tribunal case against Boots for racial harassment while employed at a store in Wickford.

The respondent, Emma Walker, a pharmacy technician, defended the case by saying she "could not have discriminated" against Mr Famojuro because of her "friends".

However, the tribunal stated: “The fact that a person has black friends does not mean they cannot discriminate in other contexts."

After winning the case in November 2023, a remedy hearing has now been heard and Mr Famojuro, has been awarded just over £58,000.

Mr Famojuro sought payment for loss of earnings, injury to feelings, aggravated damages and costs. 

The report said: "The claimant was subjected to a series of discriminatory acts over one working day, some of them very serious."

On 18 July 2020, Mr Famojuro was assigned to work as the responsible pharmacist at the Silva Island Way branch.

He was working a shift with technician Emma Walker and pharmacy assistant, Nicole Daley, both white women. The hearing heard that Mr Famojuro was stereotyped as an “aggressive black man".

The treatment escalated as the day went on, from “dismissive discourtesy, to open insubordination, to highly personal abuse”.

Mrs Walker’s threat to call the police was reported to be the “most extreme of the acts”.

The claimant spent months attempting to arrange a meeting to have the grievance investigated before contacting workplace support group Acas in October 2020.

Mr Famojuro later felt he had no choice but to resign from Boots.

The tribunal awarded the claimant £18,000 for injury to feelings, in addition to £5,633.75 in interest.

They also awarded £5,000 for aggravated damages, plus £1,564.93 in interest, and costs amounting to £13,537.25.

The tribunal also included an extra amount of £2,500 for injury to feelings and £782.47 in interest, along with a further £2,500 in respect of aggravated damages and an additional £782.47 in interest.

An ACAS uplift on both awards for injury to feelings was given in the amount of £3,075 plus £962.43 in interest, and an ACAS uplift for both awards of aggravated damages was granted in the sum of £1,125, along with £351.86 in interest.

In relation to the successful unfair dismissal claim, the claimant was granted a basic award of £2,485.20 and an additional £500 for loss of statutory rights.