Judgment approved by the court Vaultex UK Ltd v Bialas 34. The first line, and the smile, were added by the Claimant. The rest was copied and pasted from the joke website. 35. Plainly, the joke is racist. Although the references to Italian, Japanese, and English are not racist, the reference to Mexican is based on stereotypes, as is the reference to Black men. The stereotype in relation to Black men relates to an assumption of physical strength which has historically been used, and continues to be used, to justify persecution of Black people. The reference to Jewish people is anti-Semitic. It relies on a centuries-long association of Jewish people with moneylenders and usury, which in turn was based on the racialised exclusion of Jewish people from European society, and from the limitation of work that they could undertake to a small number of fields including moneylending. That exclusion of Jews and their association with money, and particularly practices around money which were prohibited for Christians, led to pogroms, wholesale deportation, and widespread social exclusion. The joke equally plays on a trope of Jewish people being miserly. The association of Jewish people with money was a theme of anti-Semitic propagandists in the leadup to the Holocaust. It remains to this day a vile expression of hatred against the Jewish people which is repeated both in this country and globally.” 10. The next subsection of the tribunal’s fact finding is headed “The dismissal”. The tribunal found that the claimant’s post was reported for racism a few minutes after it was created and then removed by the respondent’s IT department. There was a disciplinary investigation with which the claimant cooperated, which led to a disciplinary meeting. The tribunal continued: “38. Mr Babbage chaired the disciplinary meeting. It was his decision whether to dismiss the Claimant. He reviewed all the materials given to him but did not commission the IT department to check the Claimant’s internet records as he had been asked to by the Claimant. 39. The Claimant has at every opportunity during the investigation and disciplinary process produced detailed and profuse apologies, orally and in writing. He asked for retraining. At the disciplinary meeting Mr Babbage had the apologies available and read them. 40. Mr Babbage felt constrained by the Respondent’s zero-tolerance policy in respect of discriminatory language. He considered that the post was racist and breached the Respondent’s policies. He took account of the Claimant’s long service, his exemplary record, and his apologies. However, he felt that if he gave a written warning, when viewed in the context of the EDI campaign, that it would appear that the Respondent was not taking the campaign seriously. 41. Mr Babbage accepted and said to the Claimant when giving his decision to dismiss the Claimant that the basis for his decision was that the Claimant ran the risk in posting the post ‘without giving it proper thought’. He did not say at the time that the Claimant could have read the joke, in part or whole, and not concluded that it was offensive before posting it on WorkVivo. If he had thought that, then he would have said it in his reasons. He did not say it because it did not contribute to his reasons for dismissal. concluded that it was offensive before posting it on WorkVivo. If he had thought that, then he would have said it in his reasons. He did not say it because it did not contribute to his reasons for dismissal. 42. At no stage in the process was the Claimant made aware of why the post was racist, and in particular of the problematic racist assumptions about Black people and Jewish people that it included.” © EAT 2024 Page 6 [2024] EAT 19