Scottish postman who sued Royal Mail for racism loses discrimination claim

A Scottish postman wasn’t racially discriminated against by an English colleague who told him ‘I can’t understand you’, 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 couldn’t understand what he was saying, while also ‘screwing up his face’.

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

But a tribunal in Cambridge found Mr Wiggs couldn’t understand Mr McCalam because he was talking too quickly – not because of his accent. 

Mr Wiggs had previously insisted he was not a bigot, despite admitting he couldn’t understand some Scots like comedian Kevin Bridges. 

Scots postman 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 couldn’t work.

The Cambridge hearing 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 Mr Wiggs 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 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 onto the next one.’

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’.

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

A tribunal report added: ‘Mr Wiggs’ 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 repeatedly tell him that it was due to him being 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.