Scottish postman accused manager who couldn’t understand him of ‘being racist’

A Scottish postman was not racially discriminated against by an English colleague who told him “I can’t understand you” –  because he was just talking too fast, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Pete McCalam accused Royal Mail manager Alan Wiggs of being a “little bit racist” because he repeatedly told him he could not comprehend him, while “screwing up his face”.

Mr Wiggs confessed he could not understand some Scots like comedian Kevin Bridges but reassured Mr McCalam he was not a bigot.

Harassment claim 

After recording the conversation, the postman, who worked at a depot in England, sued Royal Mail for racism.

But the tribunal found Mr Wiggs couldn’t understand Mr McCalam because he was simply talking too quickly rather than his accent.

Mr McCalam had a tendency to speak faster when he was “irate”, the tribunal heard.

Although his race case was thrown out, he won a separate harassment claim against Royal Mail because another manager called him while he was off sick with stress to ask why he could not work.

The hearing in Cambridge was told Mr McCalam, who represented himself, began working for the Royal Mail as a postman in October 2019.

In June 2020, he was called to an “informal” meeting because he had driven a delivery van into a homeowner’s wall.

He covertly recorded the meeting and asked him about a previous conversation they had had.

He told him: “You know when you [slipped] in the office last week and all that stuff and, you know, you making a joke about “oh I can’t understand you, I can’t understand you” and I says ‘oh a little bit racist’, you don’t mean any of that do you?”

Mr Wiggs replied: “Do I f—”, adding: “Mate, look, I give as good as I get… There’s a few Scots I don’t, I don’t understand and Kevin Bridges is one of them.”

Mr McCalam agreed, saying “there’s a few Scots that I don’t understand” and Mr Wiggs said he had seen comedian Bridges live, adding: “I love him, he’s brilliant but by the time he’s said the joke and I’ve got it he’s on to the next one.”

Disputes over health 

The tribunal heard Mr Wiggs suffered a stroke in 2016 and can struggle processing information and that Mr McCalam’s speech “increased in pace” and he was “difficult to understand” when he became “volatile”.

A tribunal report added: “Mr Wiggs’s unchallenged evidence was that he had previously had to ask Mr McCalam to slow his speech down because he was talking too fast.

“Mr Wiggs denied discriminating against him or harassing him on the grounds of his race as a Scot.”

Employment Judge Michael Ord dismissed the race claim.

Judge Ord said: “We find as a fact that the reason why Mr Wiggs told [Mr McCalam] that he could not understand him was because [he] was speaking rapidly which created a problem for Mr Wiggs based on his medical condition.

“We find as a fact that this had happened on previous occasions and [Mr McCalam] had been asked to slow down his speech, without any problem.

“[Mr McCalam] has not satisfied us on the balance of probability that… Mr Wiggs screwed up his face and said several times ‘I can’t understand you’ as an act of race discrimination.”

The tribunal heard Mr McCalam was frustrated he could not drive the Royal Mail van after he smashed into a wall.

He also had disputes with managers over issues related to his health and went on sick leave from July 2020 until he resigned in October 2020.

While he was off, manager Robert Gould called him to say “can I ask what is preventing you from working at the minute, please?”

Mr McCalam, who has anxiety and depression, had to tell him that it was because he was too stressed to work, causing him further upset.

The tribunal ruled this amounted to harassment on grounds of his mental health.

His other claims of race, sex, and disability discrimination failed.