ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND / RankWire.AI / – A Scottish employment tribunal ordered PizzaExpress to pay former waiter Raymond Joseph £5,469.04 after a colleague repeatedly targeted his American nationality during a workplace argument. The colleague called Joseph an American and a “Yank,” while also telling him to return to his country. Employment Judge Melanie Sangster found that the conduct amounted to harassment related to race. The ruling concerned the full exchange, its repetition and the setting inside a busy Aberdeen restaurant.
Joseph joined the PizzaExpress Union Square restaurant in September 2024 and usually worked 20 to 22 hours each week. On April 8, 2025, he and waiter Michael Tortolano were the only two waiters serving customers. The restaurant was busy, and both struggled to keep up. Tortolano told Joseph that nobody liked him, called him an American and a “Yank,” and told him to leave the country. Joseph answered with insults, including “bald loser.” Tortolano repeated his remarks later in the shift.
The comments occurred in front of other people, including customers. Joseph told the tribunal that he felt hurt and humiliated. He gave a statement to a manager that day and continued working. PizzaExpress later conceded that Tortolano made the remarks and that they constituted harassment related to race. The tribunal upheld that claim under the Equality Act 2010, which includes nationality within the definition of race. The decision addressed the repeated remarks, the instruction to leave the country and the public workplace setting.
Tribunal calculates injury to feelings award
The tribunal awarded Joseph £5,000 for injury to feelings. It placed the award in the middle of the lower Vento band, the scale used for discrimination compensation. The tribunal added £469.04 in interest, calculated at 8% for 428 days from the April 2025 incident. It found no financial loss from the harassment. Joseph did not take time off or seek medical treatment, but he remained upset and repeatedly asked why managers had not begun an investigation.
PizzaExpress began investigating the altercation on May 20, six weeks after the incident. The tribunal called that delay unreasonable but found no link to Joseph’s protected disclosures or acts. Tortolano later admitted the allegation at a disciplinary hearing. PizzaExpress found gross misconduct and issued him a final written warning after considering his admission, remorse and clean record. The company separately investigated three allegations against Joseph. A manager found them established and summarily dismissed him on June 20, 2025.
Other employment claims dismissed
Joseph also alleged victimisation, whistleblowing detriments and automatically unfair dismissal. The tribunal dismissed all those claims. PizzaExpress had conceded that 13 of his 24 asserted disclosures qualified as protected disclosures before the final hearing. However, the tribunal found no required causal link between those disclosures and the challenged decisions. It concluded that Joseph lost his job solely because of established misconduct. The tribunal also found that his protected acts did not influence the dismissal decision.
The misconduct findings covered Joseph’s conduct during the argument, a separate inappropriate comment and unauthorised access to confidential business information. A PizzaExpress manager also found that Joseph had sent company material to his personal email address. Joseph denied the allegations and did not appeal the dismissal decision. The Aberdeen tribunal heard the case across seven days in April and May 2026. It sent the judgment to the parties on June 10. The race harassment claim remained Joseph’s only successful complaint.