A tribunal heard that after a black nurse reported being subjected to racial abuse, a manager from the National Health Service advised her to bleach her skin so that she would return the next day as a white individual and the patient would be polite to her.
South African nurse Adelaide Kweyama was stunned by the remark after reporting that a patient had racially assaulted her and feigned he could not understand English.
The panel was informed that Ms. Kweyama later overheard the senior nurse telling a colleague that she was “weary of people coming to work and saying they are sick” and that Ms. Kweyama should “go bleach her complexion.”
In an earlier incident, a group of male inmates branded Ms. Kweyama a “n*****, monkey” while she was working as a temporary nurse at a Heathrow detention facility for illegal immigrants.
The conduct of NHS administrators to the incident was criticized by an employment judge as a “absolute surrender of the positive responsibilities of managers.”
Ms. Kweyama successfully sued her former employer, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, for racial harassment and victimization after her employment ended.
An employment tribunal in Watford heard that between November 2017 and February 2019, Ms. Kweyama worked as an agency nurse at the Heathrow immigrant deportation center on a regular basis.
The facility houses approximately 600 male immigration prisoners from a variety of nations awaiting removal from the United Kingdom.
The panel was informed that inmates receive medical care from Trust workers prior to deportation.
Ms. Kweyama was subjected to racial harassment in January 2019 by a group of detainees who were waiting for their medication to be provided.
The nurse instructed everyone to come individually for their medications and to close the door, after which she was subjected to racial slurs.
Ms. Kweyama told the court, “[The detainees] began calling me n****r, monkey, and began making monkey noises and dog noises while demanding entry.”
The nurse then submitted an electronic incident report regarding the incident, according to testimony presented before the tribunal.
‘Overworked’ The panel heard that NHS administrators failed to keep her updated on the status of her complaint and did not inform her of the efforts taken to prevent a similar incident from occurring again.
A judge deemed the Trust’s response to the incident a “absolute abdication of managers’ positive responsibility.”
In a separate instance the following month, Ms. Kweyama was assisting an inmate who used racist slurs against her and feigned he could not speak or understand English.
When Ms. Kweyama brought up the issue with her senior nurse, she was instructed, “You need to buy a bleach pool to bleach your skin so that you return tomorrow white and the patient would be nice to you.”
Later that day, the same nurse was caught conversing with another coworker and said, “I do not care, let her go bleach her skin; I am sick and tired of people coming to work claiming to be sick.”
Ms. Kweyama emailed her agency, Athona, a few weeks after the incident, explaining that she was no longer able to work at the Heathrow location because she had “become very unhappy… and needed time to rehabilitate psychologically and emotionally.”
The panel heard that Ms. Kweyama also complained that she had “suffered racial abuse,” that the NHS Trust had “done nothing to support her,” and that as a result, she had lost her job.
In the same month, an NHS manager informed her that her contract was being terminated because the manager was “concerned about the claimant’s mental health” because “certain terms used in her statement were concerning.”
The tribunal determined that the nurse had been subjected to racial discrimination and victimization when she was instructed to “bleach her skin.”
The tribunal ruled that Ms. Kweyama was also victimized by her supervisor for the same remarks when she was informed that her agency position was being terminated.
Her claim of direct racial discrimination was, however, denied.
A hearing on the remedy will be scheduled at a later date.