Tribunal finds Jewish victim of antisemitic office “banter” was victimised for making a complaint but claim over discrimination fails due to insufficient evidence

 A tribunal has found in favour of a Jewish sales manager who was reportedly dismissed from his firm after alleging racist and sexist discrimination in connection with “unpleasant banter” at the office.

Michael Weinreb took his former employer, Online Travel Training Group, to the tribunal following comments from colleagues such as “Is that the Jew coming out of u [sic]?” and alleged bullying.

After Mr Weinreb raised the complaint, his employment was reportedly terminated, which the court considered amounted to victimisation.

The court said that “We find that the ‘banter’ often crossed the line of acceptable behaviour,” adding: “We note that it is often difficult for the butt of the joke to complain about the joke for fear of being regarded as humourless and, indeed, we find that the claimant put up with a lot of unpleasant banter without complaint in order to have a good working environment.”

However, Mr Weinreb’s claim for discrimination failed due to insufficient evidence that the alleged bullying was motivated by his race or sexuality.

A hearing for remedy is set for July.