- Shoaib Razaq won his claim of unfair dismissal and racial discrimination
- He said giving his colleague at the Cambridgeshire store a vibrator was wrong
- But the recipient of the gift insisted it was bought as a ‘prank’
A Tesco manager who was sacked after giving a female colleague a vibrator for Secret Santa has won an unfair dismissal and race discrimination claim.
Shoaib Razaq gifted Kerry Cliffe with a sex toy as part of Christmas celebrations for staff at the Cambridgeshire store, an employment tribunal heard.
The recipient of the “inappropriate gift” insisted it was bought “as a joke” while other staff handed out anal plugs and dildos.
But Mr Razaq – a married man who later admitted buying the gift was a “terrible decision” – was sacked from his role as head of the store for gross misconduct after an investigation found he had “abused his position of trust”.
He has now successfully sued for unfair dismissal and race discrimination after an employment judge found that “fundamental steps were not taken” to properly deal with all the allegations.
However, his compensation may be reduced after a tribunal finds he contributed to his shooting by buying a vibrator.
The hearing in Cambridge heard that Mr Razaq started working for Tesco in January 2020.
While employed as a store manager at the Hampton Vale Express store in Peterborough, a complaint was made against him by a supermarket employee.
Among other things, they accused the store manager of allowing employees to participate in “sexual endeavors.”
The employee claimed Mr Razaq had staff on his lap in the office and was taking money from charity tins.
The following day, another employee, Donna Spriggs, filed a complaint against Mr Razaq, making further allegations, including that he was “making out with young girls in the office”.
He also allegedly bought an inappropriate toy for a colleague for her birthday.
Tesco then carried out an investigation into the complaint and Mrs Cliffe – the recipient of the vibrator – was interviewed as part of this.
“We all had random gifts, bought butt plugs and dildos, but it was done as a joke,” she told investigators.
Ms Cliffe insisted she had experienced this in other shops.
The store manager was also accused of trying to persuade Ms Spriggs to come to work when she was unwell.
The tribunal was shown several messages he had sent her on WhatsApp asking her to come.
One of them read: ‘There’s no way you can force yourself in when we’re stuck on people.’
Mr Razaq complained that he felt like there was a “witch hunt” against him and that one person who made the complaint was a racist.
When asked about Secret Santa’s presence during the hearing, the manager said he was not supposed to buy the gift and understood it was the wrong gift.
He was asked what his colleagues and his wife would think about it, and he replied that his wife didn’t know and was jealous.
When asked what he would think if someone bought his partner a present, he replied that he would be angry.
He admitted it was wrong and could cause problems.
At the second disciplinary hearing, he apologized if he had offended the two employees who had made the complaint.
“I understand I made a mistake with the vibrator,” he said.
Mr Razaq later added that it was a “terrible decision to buy a gift”.
The store manager was dismissed for harassment and bullying and the investigating officer concluded that he had “abused his position of trust as a manager”.
She said he subjected colleagues to harassment with “inappropriate pranks” and “spreading offensive material”.
Mr Razaq sued the supermarket giant for unfair dismissal and racial discrimination.
Employment judge Niran de Silva KC upheld the claims, concluding that the investigator had not properly investigated the allegations of misconduct and had not looked too closely at what the exact allegations were against the shop manager.
The tribunal concluded that her decision was based on a general feeling that there had been misconduct on the part of Mr Razaq and that she had been greatly influenced by the two complaints.
The judge said — without addressing whether the disciplinary allegations were true — no reasonable employer would do that.
He said “fundamental steps were not taken” when dealing with the complaint and Mr Razaq’s claims that one of the staff who complained about him was racist.
But the tribunal warned that the level of compensation he will receive may be reduced because of his behaviour.
“The tribunal found that the complainant contributed to the dismissal by the following conduct which was culpable: providing a vibrator to a colleague as a Secret Santa gift and WhatsApp messages to Ms Spriggs in an attempt to persuade her to come to work when she was ill,” added EJ de Silva.
A hearing to decide Mr Razaq’s compensation will be held at a later date.