In Dana El Farra v National Gallery Ms El Farra was employed by Securitas as a visitor engagement assistant. Her duties at the National Gallery included providing visitor information, selling and scanning tickets and working in the cloakroom.
Farra took offence after bosses suggested she wore a badge containing a Kuwaiti flag to identify her “mother tongue with the appropriate flag”, the London Central employment tribunal heard. The British national, who said her only link to Kuwait was that her parents once worked there, claimed the request was “racially motivated”, adding she was unfairly treated compared with Spanish and Italian colleagues.
On one occasion, the hearing was told a manager had asked: “What is this you are opening here, a market?” after Ms El Farra put her coat and bag on a bench beside her. She argued that the market reference was a “scathing stereotype about Arab culture”.
But her claims of race discrimination were dismissed by the tribunal, which ruled that the badge request was not racist and other comments did not create a “humiliating or offensive environment” for her.
Frances Spencer, an employment judge, said although Ms El Farra was “sensitive” about questions relating to her ethnicity, the remarks directed at her did not meet the threshold of violating her dignity.
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