"Black warehouse worker wins £3,000 payout over colleague’s ‘slave’ graffito", 5 August 2025

A Black warehouse worker has won a race harassment claim after a disgruntled colleague wrote the word “slave” on a piece of machinery.

The colleague had meant it not as a racial slur but as an expression of his anger at, as he saw it, being overworked and underpaid, an employment tribunal heard.

But the presence of the word in the workplace violated Seedy Fofana’s dignity and created a “hostile, humiliating and offensive environment for him”, the tribunal ruled.

Awarding Fofana £3,000 compensation, the employment judge David Hughes concluded that the graffito did relate to race even though that had not been the intention...

Bosses removed all the graffiti created by Bennett except the one on the Hubtex as they had not spotted it, but Fofana saw it during a stock-take. He did not report it but resigned the following month complaining about hostile behaviour and sued the company, claiming £500,000 in compensation.

The judge said the conclusion that the company had failed to remove a piece of graffiti that it had not seen might be seen as harsh. The judgment said that once the company was made aware of it, it removed it.