Old Toll Bar owner said pub manager looked 'very Aryan' and that she 'liked white people better'

A bar manager who was told she looked “very Aryan” by her boss has won more than £2,000 after a tribunal found she was discriminated against.

Sky Sinclair worked at The Old Toll Bar in Glasgow when the pub’s director, Ahmed Magdy Soliman, also said to her: “Oh yeah, forgot you like white people better,” after she bought a coffee for a white colleague, an employment tribunal heard.

Ms Sinclair felt “uncomfortable”, the tribunal was told, when Mr Soliman said: “You look very Aryan with your blue eyes and blonde hair” in the summer of 2023.

Later that year, after Ms Sinclair bought a coffee for a white colleague, her boss said: “Is that for me?” and upon learning that it was not, he added: “Oh yeah, forgot you like white people better,” and: “How was Germany?” the Glasgow tribunal heard.

Ms Sinclair had no connection with Germany, and the tribunal heard she interpreted the comment, in light of the earlier remark, as “suggesting that she was racist or associated with Nazi ideology”.

She said she “felt awkward and believed that Mr Soliman was deriving satisfaction from her discomfort”.

By June 2024, Ms Sinclair, then 34, was unexpectedly removed from the staff group chat, and on July 11, when she came in to work, Mr Soliman said she was being dismissed due to poor sales performance, the tribunal heard.

When she questioned how sudden her dismissal was, Mr Soliman said she had not quite been employed for two years and the decision was made.

He told Ms Sinclair to leave immediately.

Employment judge Shona MacLean ruled that Ms Sinclair had been harassed and unlawfully discriminated against in Mr Soliman’s unsolicited race-related remarks, and as the business owner, his comments on her race and appearance put her “in a difficult position”.

Ms Sinclair was awarded £2,000, plus interest, for injury to her feelings.

Judge MacLean also ruled in her decision, published on Friday, that Ms Sinclair’s dismissal was unfair, declaring that it “appeared predetermined to avoid the claimant acquiring statutory rights”.

She was awarded more than £14,000 for the unfair dismissal claim, having sought more than £17,000 for lost earnings for 54.5 weeks.