A man has told a court that he was subjected to “a campaign of bullying, harassment and victimisation” by Brent Council, after a violent assault affected his work.
Sayed Yusuf, 33, said he was the victim of an attack in 2016, after which he required seven hours of facial surgery and suffered from persistent back pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
He has taken the council to an employment tribunal for alleged race and disability discrimination, claiming it failed to make reasonable adjustments in the wake of the attack and then unfairly dismissed him.
“We are all here because they wanted to save money on a chair,” he said outside Watford Employment Tribunal on Monday, December 5.
But the court heard that some or all of his case – currently listed for a 15-day hearing – could yet be thrown out.
Brent Council contends that Mr Yusuf – who is representing himself – has raised many of his complaints out of time.
He is counter-arguing that he was the victim of continuing course of discrimination, rather than a string of unrelated incidents to be dealt with on their individual merits.
Mr Yusuf told the court he was a UCL graduate with a master’s degree.
He joined the council in 2015 as a traffic engineer, but suffered a serious assault the following year.
He was ultimately dismissed in 2021, he said.
“Maybe I have an accent,” he said. “Maybe I am Black. Maybe I have reasons for people to discriminate against me. But my story is true, 100 per cent.
“When you read my statement, sir, it will be obvious there’s a culture of bullying and harassment of employees in Brent.
“I did a lot of work. I printed everything from 2016 that happened to me and my colleagues.”
Mr Yusuf is due to be cross-examined by Brent Council’s barrister – Peter Lockley, from 11KBW chambers – over three days beginning tomorrow (Tuesday, December 6).
Mr Lockley told the court Mr Yusuf has complained of “116 separate incidents” of discrimination.
“The claimant’s theory of the case is that there was a concerted campaign to manage him out after his accident because he was dead wood,” said Mr Lockley.
Judge Gary Tobin said to Mr Yusuf: “I think your argument is that all of this is a conspiracy.
“If we think that there’s no conspiracy, we will look at individual acts by individual people.
“You’re going to have to have a very compelling argument for us to accept a claim that’s out of time.”
The court heard that there had been a prior attempt by Brent to “settle” the case, but no evidence pertaining to that proposed settlement will be allowed before the judges.
“They may well have made you an offer to settle,” said Judge Tobin.
“You may well say that’s because there’s an admission they have done something wrong.”
But he added that Brent could equally have attempted to settle the case because of the “effort and disruption” of defending it.
“That’s what people do,” he said.
Court was adjourned so that Mr Tobin – substituted onto the case just 15 minutes before it was due to begin – could acquaint himself with the witness statements and evidence before Mr Yusuf’s cross-examination began on Tuesday morning (December 6).
A Brent Council spokesperson said: “We do not accept any of Mr Yusuf’s allegations or his account of what happened. We are vigorously defending the claims and are confident that the court will support the council’s case once the trial has concluded."
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