Not allowed to take your holiday exactly when you want to take it?  Well why not sue the company for racism and religious discrimination. (Offer not available to Christians or White people)

From Daily Mail:

A married couple claim they were victimised at work due to their religious beliefs after being refused holidays during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Donna Tunkara, 32, and husband Yassin, 31, say they suffered discrimination, harrassment, victimisation and constructive dismissal after bosses at the Portrack Lane warehouse in Stockton-on-Tees of supermarket giant Morrisons turned down holiday requests in 2012.

A tribunal held at Teesside Magistrates’ Court yesterday heard evidence from Mrs Tunkara, who says her holiday request for the last 10 days of fasting during Ramadan was turned down unfairly.

She added that the stress of working night shifts caused her to suffer a breakdown and be admitted to hospital.

However solicitor Philip Crowe, representing Morrisons, called Mrs Tunkara a ‘liar’ during cross examination and said that she had not got the holidays she asked for because she missed a deadline – meaning all holiday time was already taken.

He said: ‘You have not got exactly what you wanted and acted like a spoiled brat, and you have taken the easy way out to play the discrimination and race card, haven’t you? It is unfair.’

Mrs Tunkara rejected accusations that she had fabricated her story, and said that she and her husband had enjoyed their job at the Stockton base.

She said: ‘No it was not the easy way out.

‘It was very difficult to deal with. We asked for the holidays because it was too difficult to work night shifts while fasting.”

Mr Crowe had asked Mrs Tunkara why the couple, from Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, had not put in their holiday requests by the end of February, the company deadline for summer requests.

He also challenged her over discrepancies in the dates she claimed to have had meetings with managers.

Mrs Tunkara said she had been admitted to hospital after working a shift on August 11, 2012, and had not even recognised her husband in the immediate aftermath.

She also claimed that she had asked for time off for her and her husband between August 9 and August 22 at the beginning of March, as soon as she received a planner from her mosque telling her when Ramadan was to begin.

She told the tribunal her line manager Peter Woodward had taken the request while he was in a meeting with another person.

Directly after, he told Mr and Mrs Tunkara he had discussed Ramadan with the other person and had decided he would not grant the request, claims Mrs Tunkara.

Mr Crowe denied this incident ever took place, and asked why Mrs Tunkara had only mentioned it in her latest witness statement.

He also asked her why, after working during the first weeks of Ramadan in July and August, did she only suffer problems while working shifts during the period she had asked to have off.

Mrs Tunkara said she had come to a compromise to work shorter, seven-hour shifts, and split her 30-minute breaks in two but the cumulative stress of working while fasting had led to her breakdown.

She also said she and Mr Tunkara had been denied informal 15 minute breaks other staff enjoyed on night shifts, and that her request for holidays had been treated differently to requests from other members of staff.

The case continues.

A former Sunday school teacher who was convicted of racially abusing a family of travellers has managed to clear her name after nearly a year of fighting in the courts.

José Hampson, a grandmother of three who runs a toyshop, was fined £1,380 for allegedly launching a foul-mouthed race rant after scraping her car on a gatepost.

But she has now been vindicated after a court ruled that she was innocent and wiped her record clean.

The former school governor, who had never been in trouble with the law, said she was ‘absolutely sickened’ by her initial conviction, adding that the experience was ’11 months of hell’.

Mrs Hampson, 78, was convicted of racially aggravated harassment in August last year after Michael Linfoot, who lived on a traveller site near her home, alleged that she had called him and his family ‘dirty f****** gypos’.

On Friday, she had the conviction overturned at Preston Crown Court, and will not have to pay any of the fines and court costs which were previously imposed on her.

Mrs Hampson has run Hampson’s Toymaster in Chorley, Lancashire with her family for more than six decades, and is considered a pillar of the community.

Speaking after the hearing, the pensioner said: ‘I was absolutely sickened to be convicted over something that was nothing more than a pack of lies and it is a great relief to clear my name.

‘I was made to feel guilty of something I didn’t do even though I always knew I was innocent. When I was convicted I couldn’t believe it, and since then life has been dreadful. It has been 11 months of hell.

‘I could not believe an innocent person could be found guilty in a British court of law and the whole thing has been incredibly stressful.

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A senior lawyer at a global banking firm has claimed she suffered a miscarriage due to the stress of being hounded out of her job and subjected to a string of racist remarks.

Angela Cobbina, 41, who was Dutch banking giant ABN Amro’s top lawyer in Britain, claims the firm’s UK chief executive Paul Schuilwerve made repeated racist comments at her expense and that led to her being ‘systematically frozen out’.

And she fears the stress of her ordeal could have contributed to her suffering a miscarriage early last year.

Now Ms Cobbina is suing the bank for a reported £300,000 for sex, race and religious discrimination over claims she was a victim of a ‘campaign’ of harassment.

A hearing at Central London Employment Tribunals today heard how Mr Schuilwerve strongly denies allegations of racism.

However, the tribunal heard he threw his support behind the controversial Dutch tradition of ‘Black Pete’.

The tradition, part of the annual Christmas St Nicholas parade, involves white people ‘blacking up’ and parading through the streets, has been condemned as racist by the UN.

In documents presented to the tribunal, Ms Cobbina said Mr Schuilwerve began his racist abuse the first time he met her in September 2012.

During the meeting in London he looked at a colour picture of the lawyer and remarked: ‘We cannot even see you in the picture.’ The lawyer claimed the remark was clearly a reference to her skin colour.

‘I felt upset, humiliated and belittled by Mr Schuilwerve’s comment about my photo,’ she said in her witness statement.

‘I did not make a complaint about Mr Schuilwerve’s comment at the time because he had been my line manager for less than 2 weeks and I did not wish to be seen as a trouble maker or deemed “sensitive”.’

Ms Cobbina, of Streatham, south London, claims that over the next 12 months she was the ‘target of a campaign designed to remove or drive me from the business.’

She added: ‘I was variously excluded, overlooked, targeted for undue criticism (including in connection with my performance, conduct, appearance and personal belief) and otherwise treated differently from my colleagues.’

At a meeting the following June she claims Mr Schuilwerze again ‘taunted’ her about her race after one of their colleagues described himself as the ‘black sheep of the family’.

The tribunal heard that the Dutch executive had said: ‘Speaking of that, what about Blackfriars? Let’s talk about all things black. Is Blackfriars the same as Blackadder?’

Ms Cobbina accused her boss of singling her out, and said: ‘Mr Schuilwerve’s exaggerated enunciation whenever he mentioned the word “black”.

‘I felt this emphasis was unusual. I was and am clear that his words were connected to my presence.

‘This is endorsed by the fact there is no logic to this remark. It is simply a series of unconnected words the incorporate the word black.’

In the midst of the alleged racist campaign against her, Ms Cobbina discovered she was pregnant during the Christmas break 2012.

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Sol Campbell has accused the Football Association of racism and claimed that if he had been white he would have captained England for more than 10 years.

The former Arsenal defender claimed the FA wished he had been white as they believed they could not have a black man leading the England team.

In an extract from an authorised biography published in a Sunday newspaper, Campbell said he realised the extent of the FA’s racism when Michael Owen was made captain ahead of him.

“I believe if I was white, I would’ve been England captain for more than 10 years,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Campbell said his performances, credibility, club captaincy experience and position at the heart of central defence made him a worthy candidate.

But he said that although it was acceptable to have a non-white captain as captain of age-group teams but not of the full national side.

“I don’t think it will change because they don’t want it to, and probably the majority of fans don’t want it, either,” he said in the biography by Simon Astaire.

And he added: “There is a ceiling and although no one has ever said it, I believes its made of glass.”

Campbell said he had repeatedly asked himself why he was not made permanent captain – he led England out three times in 73 caps between 1996 and 2007 – and could only conclude it was due to the colour of his skin. He said the more caps he won the further away from the captaincy he appeared to get.

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