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Indian accused of racial abuse
Akhter Khan, 33, a Pakistani development worker on a project to fight racism claims he was racially abused by his Indian boss, reports Nabanita Sircar.
A Pakistani development worker on a project to fight racism and bring people from ethnic minority communities into the workforce claims he was racially discriminated against by an Indian.
Akhter Khan, 33, claims he was subjected to a series of insulting and derogatory remarks about his race by his boss Prem Singh, manager of the Empower Scotland Ltd project. He told a Glasgow employment tribunal this week that he was humiliated by the comments, he claimed, Singh made about Pakistanis. He explained that Singh said, "Indians call the shots, while Pakis do all the donkey work,'' after Khan had been left to complete a task on his own.
He told the tribunal, "To him it might have been humorous but to me it was not.'' He said that when he came to work one day after India beat Pakistan in the cricket World Cup, last March, he found the office decorated with Indian flags.
Khan, whose job with the project was to promote equal opportunities for black and ethnic minority people in the labour market, pointed out that a function being organised to launch the project which was scheduled for a Friday afternoon would be unsuitable for Muslims as they normally went to the mosque for prayers. But Singh said he knew what was best for the project, and accused Khan of undermining him.
The tribunal heard Khan made a formal complaint against Singh, but he said Singh told him he was seeking legal advice on Khan's ''derogatory remarks'' against him. Empower Scotland Ltd denies that Khan was discriminated against by Singh. After an investigation it was decided that no one should be punished. Khan was dismissed after he tried to move to the next stage of the grievance procedure. However, the hearing is still on.
