Panel finds remark was intended as praise by manager with ‘linguistic influences’ from his native Romania, but still ‘deeply offensive’
13 August 2026
A site services worker has won part of his race harassment claim after a tribunal found his manager used a racial slur when comparing his performance with that of a Black former colleague.
A Bristol tribunal heard that Mr H Jones, who is Black, resigned from food manufacturer Andros UK in February 2024 after his manager, Lucian Paduraru – who is originally from Romania, but has lived in the UK for 20 years – referred to a former Black colleague as a “m****y”.
During a performance meeting, Paduraru used the former worker as an example of a more productive employee, saying he would “run around like a little m****y to get things done”.
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The tribunal found Paduraru was trying to offer a compliment to the former worker with “no discernible racist intent”.
However, it ruled that the word ‘m****y’, when used in relation to a Black person, was a “widely recognised racial slur” and amounted to unwanted conduct related to race.
The panel found the remark was “more than trivial or transitory” and that Jones was reasonably entitled to find the comparison “deeply offensive”, regardless of intent. The tribunal concluded the remark was a “one off” and was therefore a...
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