Man misnamed by ‘Arrogant’ Boss in Race Harassment Case

A tribunal has ruled that misnaming an ethnic minority colleague could be race harassment.

This was the case for a bathroom salesman whose boss got his name wrong four times in one day.

A tribunal in Watford heard that Viveak Taneja, who worked at Phoenix Whirlpools, was repeatedly called “Vikesh” by sales director Dana Davies.

Mr Taneja joined the company as an area sales manager in 2021 and was one of the best salesmen.

But in March 2022, he was late picking up Mr Davies from King’s Cross Station, resulting in a “toxic” journey.

It was heard Mr Davies asked 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 “Viveak” but Mr Davies did not apologise for the mistakes.

They later stopped at a McDonald’s for coffee where a meeting about Mr Taneja’s work took place.

The panel heard Mr Davies used the name “Vikesh” twice more.

The hearing was told: “After the third time, Mr Taneja became angry and upset and started to pack his belongings to leave.

“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’.”

There was a further altercation as Mr Davies blocked Mr Taneja’s path to his car and told him he was “finished” and “terminated” if he drove off, which he did anyway.

Mr Taneja was fired that day and took his complaints to the tribunal.

Employment Judge Sally Cowen ruled that Mr Taneja was a victim of race harassment and said his dignity had been “violated”.

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.”

Mr Taneja was awarded more than £9,000.