Der Arbeiter bekommt £ 17.000, nachdem der Boss ihn komisch nennt

Read the article, seems fair. Head of business punches down at autistic employee

Misleading headline is misleading. The worker is autistic and said that it essentially hard to work with the music so loud, which can be a huge sensory issue first people with autism. Their employer said “Why can’t you be ordinary and perfect like the rest of us?”.

Full story:

A children’s centre worker who was called a weirdo by his boss has been paid more than £17,000 after a tribunal judge found the comment violated his dignity.

Nicholas James, who is autistic, complained in 2023 that he could not work properly at The Venture in Wrexham because of music being played, which affected his ability to concentrate.
The employment tribunal in Cardiff heard chief officer Malcolm King joked to him: „Why can’t you be ordinary and perfect like the rest of us? But no, jokes aside, having always been something of a weirdo myself, I have some sympathy.“

Judge Stephen Jenkins said the comments were „inappropriate“ given Mr King’s position and, on reflection, he agreed.

Mr Jenkins told the tribunal these comments came from the chief officer, „the most senior person within the executive structure of the organisation“.

„In the circumstances, we were satisfied that the comments did involve unwanted conduct which had the effect of violating the claimant’s dignity,“ he added.

As usual the headline doesn’t tell the whole story. Seems pretty reasonable after reading the article.

I don’t see what’s so offensive about the comment the manager made. Clumsy and baldy worded, but clearly a joke.
Hopefully future employers google the successful winner so they are aware what liability they might take in.

Shockingly, despite the clickbait title, the claimant was given this award for much more than being called a silly name, but because the employer engaged in multiple breaches of the Equality Act 2010, over a period of several months, including retaliating against the employee for raising a „protected act“ via a formal grievance relating to allegations of discrimination and harassment, which is a specific breach known as [victimisation](https://www.acas.org.uk/discrimination-and-the-law/victimisation), via penalising him financially, which waa also found to be an unlawful deduction of wages as per s.13(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

Full decision from the ET with the judge’s reasons can be found below, but you can skip to pages 42-58 to get a breakdown of the activities that the ET detirmined to be in breach of the following four sections of the [EqA](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents), in relation to Mr James‘ disability, alongside the unlawful deduction of wares:

– s.15 Discrimination Arising from a Disability

– s.20 Failure to Provide Reasonable Adjustments

– s.26 Harassment

– s.27 Victimisation

[N James v The Venture Ltd [2025] ETEW](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6838257a5150d70c85aafaac/Mr_N_James_v_The_Venture__Wrexham__Limited_-_1601001.2024_-_Written_Reasons.pdf)