A car showroom manager has avoided being sanctioned for using a racial slur because the complaint wasn’t made in time.
Scott Bullock referred to an Asian customer as a ‘c****y Chinaman’ during a staff meeting, a tribunal heard.
The boss at a Land Rover dealership near Birmingham used the slur in March 2016 in front of shocked team members.
Former employee John James – who is half-Indian – sued the company over a raft of allegations, including racial harassment, and was unsuccessful on all counts.
But during the process, it was concluded that Mr Bullock did use the derogatory phrase included in one of the salesman’s complaints.
The tribunal heard how a work investigation was launched after Mr James recorded his boss using the word on an iPad.
During a workplace investigation, he said he couldn’t ‘recall ever saying that’ and made further remarks about the supposed commercial potential of Asian customers, while insisting he treats ‘everyone the same’.
Mr Bullock is reported to have said: ‘We get all walks of life through this showroom. We’re not stupid to know that, probably 75/80% of our day to day customers are foreign.
‘From when I first started with Colliers, when Land Rover wasn’t popular, it was on the odd occasion that you probably see an Asian gentleman.
‘Chinese people, yes on the odd occasion, one every six months, because they don’t generally buy our product. The Asian community certainly do.
‘I’ve always encouraged all of my sales team, because this is what I was told years ago, those are the best people you want to get in with. Because if you can sell to an Asian and you’re good, you’ll get his whole family.
‘You’re not talking one car, you’re talking 10/20 and that’s the motto I’ve always tried to encourage the whole of my sales team.’
The tribunal found that use of the slur would have amounted to a legitimate grievance but the complainant had waited too long to officially raise it.
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A tribunal report said: ‘Mr James refers to feeling perturbed in his dealings with Mr Bullock who, he says, was often dismissive, awkward and hostile towards him.
‘He refers to the sales meetings each morning and Mr James says he often found them uncomfortable with the tense and pervasive atmosphere when discussing Asian customers.
‘He said specifically that Mr Bullock referred to a Chinese customer as a ‘c****y Chinaman’.’
The tribunal heard the relationship between manager and employer broke down and resulted in a protracted grievance process, after which Mr James quit in February 2018.
The tribunal panel said: ‘Lancaster Motor Company…acted reasonably and patiently in dealing with Mr James’ complaints but has nonetheless had to face a barrage of confusing historical claims.’
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