Postman awarded £30K by Royal Mail after it failed to investigate racist letter – 5Pillars

A Muslim postman has won a £30,000 race discrimination payout from the Royal Mail after he was sent a racially abusive letter by a colleague. 

Rizwan Shah, 34, from Watford, received the letter at his home address on February 10, 2019. It called him a terrorist, racial slurs and claimed the office belonged to “whites only.”

But when he raised his concerns to his manager, Royal Mail took no action to investigate the racist letter.

A tribunal heard how the letter included racial slurs like “p*ki b*****d” and that he should “pack up” and “f**k off” back to his country. The letter also warned that he was not welcome in the office, and it “belongs to the whites only.”

The letter concluded that “we will smash you up when we catch you” and referred to an unidentified employee as a “black c**t”, before finishing off with “Britain First rules!!!!!”

The author of the letter was never identified.

It was also determined by the tribunal that Mr Shah had been subjected to acts of race discrimination by his manager, Matthew James, including failing to take sufficient action in the investigation of a complaint of assault by Mr Shah in December 2018.

Theodora Hand of St Philips Chambers, Counsel for Mr Shah, said: “This is a case involving a most heinous, shocking act of racism which has no place in this country and should have no place with any employer, however there were clear failings by the Respondent in their dealings of both this and a previous complaint of racism.

“The judgment by Employment Judge McNeill QC was thorough and the large sum of compensation awarded adequately reflects the distress which Mr Shah felt both as a result of the respondent’s failure to take any action or provide him with any support, and in respect of acts of race discrimination by a manager under which he continues to work.”

A spokesperson for Royal Mail said: “Royal Mail has a zero tolerance approach to any form of abuse, including racism. We await the written judgment which we will carefully review.”

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