£44k payout | Heathrow worker unfairly sacked after sharing racist video, tribunal finds

A Heathrow Airport security officer was unfairly dismissed after showing a colleague a video described as “racist, highly offensive and completely inappropriate”, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Jose Gomes, who had worked at Heathrow for 21 years, was dismissed in November 2022 after a disciplinary process found he had shown the video and made remarks including a saying about Indian men and a derogatory term about Black people.

In her dismissal letter, hearing manager Chloe Finlay wrote: “I have also considered whether any other sanction could be appropriate in this case, but given the discriminatory nature of these allegations, how serious they are, that this video and phrases have no place in the work place, I have concluded you may do similar things again, and therefore, it is my belief that the only appropriate sanction is to summarily dismiss you with immediate effect.”

The tribunal agreed that showing the video amounted to misconduct but found the decision to dismiss was outside the range of reasonable responses.