A judge has ruled that laughing at someone when they fall over at work is not harassment.

Kesarajith Perera started working at The George pub - owned by Stonegate Pub Company - in January 2020 as a kitchen team member and in March of that year, he slipped on an oil spill.

The following October, after failing to provide documentation that proved his  right to work in the UK, he was dismissed and subsequently launched a tribunal claim complaining of racial and religious harassment. For race discrimination, the Claimant relied upon being of Sri Lankan ethnic origin. For religious discrimination, the Claimant relied upon being a Catholic. In the claim, as part of his evidence Mr Perera submitted the allegation that his former boss - team leader Hesham Badra - had deliberately put oil on the floor to make him fall and laughed when he succeeded.

However, employment judge David Maxwell dismissed this, calling it “ridiculous” and ruled that laughing at someone when they fall over at work did not constitute harassment.

In his judgment, he stated:

“We accept that Mr Bandara laughed when the Claimant slipped and fell over. Whilst it might be tempting to hope that one colleague would only ever react in a sympathetic way towards the misfortune of another, common experience suggests this is not always the case. The slapstick element of a fall may prompt laughter.”

Judge Maxwell also noted that:

“We do not find, as the Claimant suggested in his witness statement that Mr Bandara put oil on the floor deliberately to cause this fall..……Unfortunately, it appears to us, the Claimant has a tendency to jump to conclusions when he encounters misfortune. Furthermore, the Claimant’s allegation was undermined by his own evidence, which was to the effect that the location where he fell was one prone to spillages.”

The panel concluded the laughter - or any other of Mr Perera's complaints - had anything to do with race or religion. They commented:

“There were no facts, from which in the absence of an explanation, we could have made a finding of any such connection.”

Nonetheless, the tribunal did rule in Mr Perera’s favour regarding unlawful deductions of wages and awarded him £1,426.11. A further payment of £908.91 was given for the company’s failure to provide written particulars of employment.