Discrimination, it's everywhere. It could be about the colour of your skin, your gender, the country you come from, even your hair colour can be discriminated against. Where do we draw the line? When do the jokes stop being funny? A Spanish electrician, residing in the UK, has drawn the line and in a big way. Juan Ignacio worked at London Bridge Hospital for almost two years and was constantly mocked and ridiculed.
He was constantly compared to Basil from the 1970's hit comedy Fawlty Towers which starred John Cleese. Senior staff at London Bridge Hospital mimicked his accent and mocked him with the famous quote from the show: "He's from Barcelona".Mr Ignacio had claimed his alleged tormentors had branded Spain "a Third World country" and asked if his people had electricity.He also said he was subjected to regular homophobic abuse even though he is not gay.
He was seeking almost £30,000 for alleged racial discrimination, harassment and constructive dismissal in an employment tribunal case against hospital owners HCA International and two bosses – hospital estates manager Chris Sweeney and chief engineer Richard Metcalfe. his claim was of course settled out of court and he was given an undisclosed settlement.
I say, good for you Mr. Ignacio, no one has to put up with that sort of office environment, it's appalling that professionals that work in a hospital could behave in such a vile way. Apparently a polish handyman was as ridiculed as Mr. Igancio by the very same people in almost the very same way. I see a horrible pattern here......
There's nothing wrong with having a bit of fun and it's important that we can all laugh at ourselves once in a while but I hope these "senior" staff members are punished for this unacceptable behaviour. We deal with enough discrimination in the world and now we have to deal with it in hospitals too? A place of care and healing? No thank you, here's a little joke from the Apprentice for the bullies, "YOU'RE FIRED!".
