A born-again Christian police officer with mental health issues who sued his superiors over charges that his coworkers dubbed him “Father Ted” and questioned if he had “his trousers on his head and pencils up his nose” lost the appeal.
South Wales PC ex- Winston Roderick, 48, said that after 14 years on the police, he was compelled to leave because of nasty coworkers who made fun of his nervousness and depression in addition to a variety of other workplace issues.
A judge at the Employment Appeal Trial in London has permanently dismissed his appeal after he lost an employment tribunal on the subject last year.
The Christian pastor claimed that a colleague had informed him that Jesus “didn’t exist” and that the Bible was a “pile of crap” in a lawsuit for disability-related harassment and bullying.
Judge Michael Ford KC said that the lower tribunal’s decision to reject his case was correct.
The first trial concluded that certain alleged remarks were untrue and that Mr. Roderick had made the joke about having “pants on head”—a reference to the Blackadder episode “A Bout of Insanity”—about himself first.
The appeals tribunal was informed that Mr. Roderick started his police career in south Wales in 2003 and continued there as a constable until he resigned in December 2018 as a result of a number of problems.
He said a coworker at a Merthyr Tydfil unit had made light-hearted remarks about his incapacitating stress, worry, and sadness in order to “make fun” of them.
But he insisted that just because he coined the expression “pants on head” as a “coping strategy” after facing difficulties, it did not follow that others might do the same.
Despite his contention that it was comparable to a member of one race making an unpleasant racist remark about oneself and then seeing it used improperly by others, the tribunal last year ruled it to be “banter.”
Additionally, he claimed that despite being “handicapped” by his mental health concerns, his superiors on the police had not made “necessary changes” to assist him manage the job.
He said that his employer had placed him in a situation where he had to process convicts under pressure and that the notion of coming to work made him feel “sick.”
Judge Ford, however, rejected the appeal request, stating that the matter had been a factual issue for the tribunal to resolve.
According to the verdict, other officers had assumed the jokes were parodies of Monty Python skits.
He claimed that since the claimant had started it, it wasn’t harassment.
It failed to meet the legal requirement that it undermine the claimant’s respect or dignity.
This was a factual issue, and the tribunal had the right to reach its decision.
The court said that the panel had a right to conclude based on the available information that Mr. Roderick had not been the victim of bullying motivated by his faith.
The tribunal determined that the “Father Ted” allegation was untrue and that his coworkers’ comments that Jesus Christ was a myth and the Bible was “nonsense” were not directed at his religion but rather at his “proselytizing” at work.
The court said, “Someone who proselytizes can hardly complain if others disagree, especially if that person encourages remarks.”
The tribunal’s conclusion that the police had not made “reasonable changes” to assist him do his job was also criticized, but he rejected it.
The tribunal had determined that Mr. Roderick’s difficulties at work were not related to the particular unit he was in, but rather to the stress he experienced while working with fully “functioning” coworkers.
It was discovered that switching him to a different position would not have been beneficial.
The tribunal determined that the majority of Mr. Roderick’s resignation letter was devoted to his “historical unhappiness at his lack of advancement,” which led to the denial of his claims of religion and disability discrimination as well as a claim of constructive dismissal.
According to the respondent, the claimant entered the Hub as an unhappy officer, and nothing about his attitude changed. We concur.
The appeals court disagreed with Mr. Roderick’s appeal request and supported the tribunal’s justification.