A British Indian bathroom salesman whose boss repeatedly mispronounced his name has been awarded more than £9,000 after a tribunal judge ruled his dignity had been 'violated.'
Viveak Taneja, anarea sales manager based in London for Phoenix Whirlpools, was left 'angry and upset' when his boss Dana Davies repeatedly incorrectly addressed him as 'Vikesh', an employment tribunal heard.
The tribunal ruled that calling anan ethnic minority colleague by the wrong name could be race harassment. According to the employment judge,'mis-naming' someone at work can count as 'unwanted conduct' that may 'violate' their dignity.
It was therefore decided that failing tolisten to someone who corrects you about how to pronounce their name properly may breach equality laws.
The hearing was told that Mr Davies suffered from dyslexia which 'affected his ability to remember or pronounce names' - although he didn't tell Mr Taneja this.
Viveak Taneja (pictured), an area sales manager based in London for Phoenix Whirlpools, was left 'angry and upset' when his boss Dana Davies repeatedly incorrectly addressed him as 'Vikesh', an employment tribunal heard
Nevertheless, the panel concluded thatMr Davies 'besmirched' Mr Taneja when he repeatedly misnamed him four times, despite being corrected.
Following the misnaming, an argument erupted as Mr Taneja declared that if Mr Davies wasn't going to 'make the effort to pronounce his name correctly' he'd make no effort with him.
Mr Taneja was then sacked but has now been awarded £9,329.
The Watford tribunal heard Mr Taneja started working at the bathroom fittings company, whose main office is in Leeds, in June 2021 and became one of their 'best salesmen'.
In March 2022, Mr Davies became sales director and arranged to spend two days shadowing each member of the team to 'assess their capability'.
On March 21, Mr Taneja was late picking Mr Davies up from King's Cross Station resulting in the pair enduring a 'toxic' journey.
It was heard Mr Davies questioned Mr Taneja about his work and sales targets and referred to him as 'Vikesh' on two separate occasions.
Each time, he was corrected and told it was actually 'Viveak', but Mr Davies did not apologise for the errors.
When the pair stopped to work in a coffee shop, Mr Taneja said he had to leave early for the school run.
Phoenix Whirlpools head office in Leeds. Mr Taneja worked for the bathroom fitting company as a London based area sales manager (Google Maps)
To which Mr Davies said: 'we're going to have a problem if you say you are going to do something and you don't do it'.
The panel heard he also used the name 'Vikesh' twice more to refer to Mr Taneja.
'After the third time, Mr Taneja became angry and upset and started to pack his belongings to leave,' the hearing was told.
'He told Mr Davies that he hadn't listened when he had corrected him previously and that if he didn't make the effort to pronounce his name correctly, then he would make no effort with Mr Davies.
'As he walked away from Mr Davies, Mr Taneja referred to him as both an 'idiot' and a 'racist'.'
The panel heard there was a further altercation as Mr Davies blocked Mr Taneja's route to his car and told him he was 'finished' and 'terminated' if he drove off, which he did anyway.
Both of them reported the incident to bosses, but Mr Taneja was dismissed that day as Mr Davies' account was preferred. He appealed this, but the original decision was upheld.
Mr Taneja took complaints of unfair dismissal and both race discrimination and harassment to the tribunal.
As he had not been working at the company for two years, Employment Judge Sally Cowen dismissed the unfair dismissal claim, but upheld race harassment after the 'significant issue'.
She said: 'We accepted that Mr Taneja has a genuine emotion and sensitivity about his name, as it holds a significant meaning in Hindi.'
'We therefore accepted that this behaviour did occur and that it did amount to less favourable treatment.
'Mr Davies acted in a manner which was arrogant and lacked respect towards Mr Taneja to acknowledge his name, or take any time or effort to correct himself or to recognise his inappropriate behaviour.'
The judge said the name calling wasn't discrimination, but was instead race harassment, adding: 'We considered that the action of misnaming Mr Taneja was an unwanted conduct and that it had the effect of violating his dignity and creating an atmosphere which was intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive.
'We considered that it was related to his race as the name which Mr Davies used is one which has direct connotation with race.
'Mr Davies' evidence that he was surprised that Mr Taneja called him a racist indicates that he did not understand that his action had been offensive and therefore he lacked the intention to offend.
'He did not take the time and effort to ensure that he was not offensive to Mr Taneja.'
Considering the compensation amount, she continued: 'We take into account the fact that Mr Taneja felt strongly about the use of his name and that it has specific meaning within his culture which leads him to be particularly proud of it.
'It was clear to the tribunal that he felt besmirched by Mr Davies use of the wrong name.
'It was also clear to us, that even during the tribunal hearing, some two years after the events, he still felt affected by seeing Mr Davies and that he benefited from the support of his family at the tribunal.'
As a result, he was awarded £8,000 plus interest, taking the total compensation figure to £9,329.
