A rail conductor is suing his former bosses after he was fired for criticising diversity training and questioning “black privilege.” Simon Isherwood left his microphone on at the conclusion of a training session which took place on Zoom.
His colleagues reported him and he was sacked.
According to The Telegraph:
Simon Isherwood, 60, from Northampton, was summarily dismissed for gross misconduct from West Midlands Trains (WMT) in March last year after he accidentally left his microphone on, meaning his colleagues overheard him criticising the webinar’s contents.
The session in January last year was attended by around 80 staff members from East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Railway and Mr Isherwood’s former company London Northwestern Railway, which is owned by WMT.
At the end of the session, while staff were thanking the host, he was overheard telling his wife: “I couldn’t be a—- because I thought, ‘you know what, I’ll just get f——– angry’’.
You know what I really wanted to ask?… and I wish I had, do they have black privilege in other countries? So, if you’re in Ghana?…”
Ghana has a population that is around 98 per cent black, and two per cent white, in contrast to the UK’s population of around 86 per cent white and three per cent black.
Mr Isherwood says he made the private remark, unaware his phone was still recording via Microsoft Teams with 30 people still listening because he felt diversity trainers in the session were “indoctrinating their view on us” that “implied all white people are racist – but I’m not”.
But his remarks prompted colleagues to complain to bosses that they were “disgusted” and “angered” by the comments. Mr Isherwood was suspended while an internal disciplinary probe took place.
Mr Isherwood was sacked after West Midlands Trains, the parent company of London Northwestern Railway, ruled he had “caused offence, brought the company into disrepute and breached our equality, diversity and inclusion policy and the code of conduct”.
Now he is taking the company to an employment tribunal, to be held in Watford on Thursday and Friday, suing for unfair dismissal.
The Free Speech Union is backing him.
