Black youth worker wins £14k payout after colleagues said 'slave' slur was like being called fat

A Black youth worker has won more than £14,000 after a difficult young person called her a “slave” – and her colleagues tried to downplay it.

Louise Williams-St Louis endured a string of racist remarks from the child, who often used the N-word and called her a “plus-sized baddie”.

However, when Ms Williams-St Louis complained about his conduct, her white colleagues said that the difficult child had also called staff “fat or old”.

A Reading Employment Tribunal judge ruled that “not all insulting comments are of equal gravity” and said that making this comparison was race harassment.

Now, Ms Williams-St Louis has been awarded £14,830.

Ms Williams-St Louis was employed by West Berkshire District Council as a youth turn-around intervention worker in its Youth Justice Support Team from July 2023.

In April 2024, she was looking after a young person, anonymised in the tribunal’s decision as Young Person X.

He was a difficult child and would often be “rude and derogatory” to staff, the tribunal heard.

On one occasion, he “smashed'”his phone at a meeting with Ms Williams-St Louis because he was so frustrated.

In June 2024, X was again being difficult at a session by playing on his phone, vaping and not responding to Ms Williams-St Louis.

He was “swearing and singing explicit lyrics about stabbings”. and continued even after Ms Williams-St Louis had informed him that she had lost a family member to stabbing.

Later, he called a friend on loudspeaker. During the call, they referred to Ms Williams-St Louis with a homophobic slur, “the one you call a slave”, and “a plus-sized baddie”.

The youth worker became frustrated at the situation and said she “did not have time to argue with little boys” before going to get her things to drive X home.

She later had a meeting with manager Stacey Clay about the incident, during which she was “was rocking backwards and forwards” with distress.

Ms Clay admonished her for her “little boys” comment, saying that it was “derogatory” towards the young people, the tribunal heard.

“[Ms] Clay also likened the comments made by the young people to comments made to staff about being fat or old.”

Karen Norris, the assistant team manager, “compared the racial abuse” to the child “calling other staff members old, fat or making comments about them having a speech impediment”.

The tribunal heard: "After speaking to colleagues and managers the previous day, she felt that although people were attempting to be supportive and offer her comfort, the continuous 'its likened to' examples where it was compared to someone being old, that or having a speech impediment was not the same.

"She makes the point that body shaming, ageism and speech impediments impact all types of people, but... 'the historical barbaric violence linked to Colonialism, Imperialistic rule and slavery, due to white superiority and the belief that black people were savages and beneath white people impacted black people alone'."

The child was assigned to a different worker but continued to harass Ms Williams-St Louis.

X was taken to youth court for his behaviour later in June 2024, but in retaliation he made a host of complaints against the council staff, including Ms Williams-St Louis.

She resigned on 21 June, later saying in a meeting that her managers could not empathise with her situation as a Black woman.

She lodged a grievance that the council did not take her “complaints or feelings of upset seriously” but nothing came of it.

She won claims of race harassment and victimisation at Reading Employment Tribunal.

Employment Judge Lorna Findlay said that it is racism to compare racist comments to insults about fat or old people.

Judge Findlay said: "It was striking to us... that after making serious complaints, management did not take [Ms Williams-St Louis's] complaints and upset seriously in respect of the racism directed towards her by a young person."

Judge Findlay added: "It may be that Karen Norris was trying to liken race discrimination to abuse in relation to other protected characteristics, but we observe that if someone is fat or overweight that is not necessarily a protected characteristic unless it amounts to a disability under UK law.

"In any case, we consider that the purpose of Karen Norris's comments was to try to calm the situation by suggesting to [Ms Williams-St Louis] that the abuse she had received was not terribly serious, by likening it to insulting comments about being fat or old.

"The problem with that type of comparison, even if comparisons are made to comments about protected characteristics, is that not all insulting comments are of equal gravity.

"By making those comparisons, Karen Norris was consciously or subconsciously attempting to diminish the seriousness of what had been said to [Ms Williams-St Louis] , which related directly to the subjugation of Black people by white people in the Caribbean in the past.

The judge added: "We consider that Miss Clay's response to [Ms Williams-St Louis], in likening what had happened to her that day to staff being called old or fat by a young person and in particular by focusing on [Ms Williams-St Louis's] use of the expression 'little boys' rather than what was said by X and Y to make her react in that way, showed a lack of empathy."

Other allegations of direct race discrimination, harassment related to race and of victimisation were dismissed.