In the case of Rawnsley v Queniborough Aluminium Services Jake Rawnsley, a 20 year old factory worker, was given the task of keeping the stores clean and tidy and ordering fixings.

In October 2019 there was a confrontation between the claimant and Mr Beall the managing director. The cause of the conflict was that the claimant had complained that staff were not keeping the stores area tidy and in particular he had asked a group of staff, the fitters, to help which they did from time to time.

Mr Beall considered that the fitters should not be cleaning up the stores area because that was part of the claimant’s role and if they remained at work cleaning up, he would be paying them overtime rates. Mr Beall explained this situation to the claimant. For his part the claimant insisted that he needed help.

After around 10 or 15 minutes Mr Beall lost his temper and struck the claimant’s face, pushed him and told him to get out. The claimant clocked out and wrote on his clocking out card: “Attacked by owner. No longer feel safe here!” The claimant also went to the police to report the assault.

Mr Beall had initially texted Mr Rawnsley to apologise for his part in the incident. However, four days later he sent a letter to Mr Rawnsley that stated he was a “jumped up, know-it-all, spoilt child”. The tribunal found this insult amounted to age discrimination. It also found Mr Rawnsley was unfairly dismissed and awarded him a total of £7,949.96.