Filed under: Etc., Plants/Manufacturing, Honda, UK
Honda ordered to pay out in racism lawsuit
Kalmesh Shah moved to England from India in 2004, and started working for Honda six months after he arrived. Although he was put on a number of production lines without training, that wasn't the real problem. The real issue was that his supervisor abused him, calling him an "expletive" Indian, and he was bullied and refused toilet breaks. Over the two years of his employment, his mental and physical health suffered, and when he finally quit, he took his complaints to a tribunal. When the tribunal began to investigate, managers falsified documents to cover up the fact that Kalmesh wasn't trained.
The tribunal ultimately decided that Honda should pay £64,000 to Kalmesh -- £15,000 for what we in America would call pain and suffering, and the rest for loss of earnings and interest. Honda accepted the tribunal's findings, and considers "consider this case to be a very unfortunate 'one-off' and deeply regret the offense to Mr Shah caused by an individual associate."
Thanks for the tip, Zane!
[Source: Yahoo!]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Koga_da_wolf 10:04AM (2/15/2008)
Maybe Force India will consider hiring him now. They can make him a spokesman against the British teams. :P
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induscreed 10:09AM (2/15/2008)
Very unfortunate....GBP 64K aint a lot of money.
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vdk 12:30PM (2/15/2008)
that's what I thought...64k? He would've gotten a lot more than that in the States...
Grain 10:21AM (2/15/2008)
Denied bathroom breaks? Even prisoners get bathroom breaks. This is just horrible. Racist sons of bitches.
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sw 10:47AM (2/15/2008)
In the civilized world, in a respectable multi-billion dollar corporation, one can only hope that everyone involved gets fired with no severance package.
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DesiAuto 11:00AM (2/15/2008)
Could not agree more ...
Kevin 11:21AM (2/15/2008)
The guy made the pain and suffering on himself. If you see people treating you like crap, then you leave. You don't stay for 2 years. Now, I am not saying what they did was right either.
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sw 11:40AM (2/15/2008)
What was he to do if he had a young child and while looking for other work, he wasn't able to find something right away. Maybe he was a worker that was hired on an H1B visa(or it's equivalent) and couldn't work for someone else. Like it or not, there are times in your life when you are at the mercy of your employer. My conditions weren't as remotely bad but I was looking for other work, and it took me 2 years to find something else.
DesiAuto 12:21PM (2/15/2008)
Kevin,
... unlike you there are lot of people in this world who has a very tough life. For example, imagine going to a work in a war-torn area, it's possible that you may not come back home and if you don't go to work you may die starving.
I really wish you experience one of those situations in your life, that's the only way to undertand other people's difficulties.
Falk3r 11:29AM (2/15/2008)
' considers "consider '...
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500 11:37AM (2/15/2008)
Terrible conduct by Honda, but it appears that monetary awards in the UK are far more realistic than here. Had he brought this case in the US, the judgment would likely have been more like $100 million.
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vdk 12:31PM (2/15/2008)
x2
Andrew 11:40AM (2/15/2008)
The sad thing is that he had just come to the UK, and so he didn't know that 99% of workplaces aren't like that and thought we were all imperialist sons of bitches :/
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SteveRB 11:59AM (2/15/2008)
Kevin -
You are an idiot.
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Luis 4:40PM (2/15/2008)
Ditto.
Jason 12:28PM (2/15/2008)
Apples and oranges. The UK is hardly war torn.
philipg55 12:27PM (2/15/2008)
Honda has production lines in England?
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Franz 1:56PM (2/15/2008)
Swindon. All EP3 Civic Type Rs were built at the Swindon plant and then shipped worldwide.
andy 12:27PM (2/15/2008)
I have to agree with Kevin to an extent. Maybe he shouldn't have just flat-out LEFT the job, but if you're being abused you shouldn't be silent about it until you're terminated. Labor board, Human Resources, a union rep, there must be *someplace* to raise concerns.
If you're putting up with that kind of treatment for 2 years, not being vocal about being abused, and not taking action for yourself, you are in fact contributing to your own problem by not taking steps to get it resolved.
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DesiAuto 1:00PM (2/15/2008)
you are such an ass... "war-torn" is just one example of being in a difficult situation. I can find you people in US of A who are in worse situation that people in Zimbabwe.