Dan Robson, a 28-year-old gay energy specialist, has been awarded £36,700 in damages after enduring shocking homophobic abuse by senior employees and managers (FFS) during his time at Northern Gas and Power in the UK.
The litany of anti-gay rhetoric that Dan had to suffer is frankly astounding and despite it being rather triggering, we feel it’s only fair to him to detail some of it here.
On his FIRST DAY, a colleague shouted ‘Great, there’s a fucking bender in the office’ and it went downhill from there. His boss declared that he was going to start a ‘straight pride’ because he was sick of gays ‘rubbing it in his face.’
The list went on including being called a ‘fucking f**got’, told to ‘mince faster’ to get to work on time and a senior colleague even said that gay sex was unnatural and that when Robson resigned it would be a ‘good cleanse’.
In the day before he joined the company he identified himself as gay on their equal opportunities form, a fact that the staff failed to keep as confidential. Robson ultimately sued the company (which describes itself as specialising in energy procurement and services) for harassment, victimisation and constructive dismissal.
In a statement by the tribunal panel, they found that the Leeds based office “was accurately described . . . as toxic, involving daily use of racist, homophobic and antisemitic language, which some managers and senior employees actively engaged in treating as acceptable banter between friends and colleagues”.
Judge Rita Rogerson who awarded the sum, found in favour of Dan describing his experience as ‘a course of continuing very serious conduct, repeated and frequent homophobic abuse committed by a number of perpetrators including senior employees and managers over the course of six months’.
Frankly this sounds like the sort of story you’d expect from England in the seventies, not fucking 2021! While it’s great Dan got a hefty payout, it’s SO disappointing that he had to endure it in the first place. Northern Gas and Power have remained silent so far when approached for a comment incidentally.