Italian worker in Britain awarded $62,500 USD for 7 Year Torrent of Racial Abuse.

To those who have forgotten what the past was like, or those who never experienced it, and those who deny it ever existed, a very little sample of the bigotry our ancestors faced, that STILL exists, and is NOT an isolated case.
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DAMAGES FOR TAUNTED ITALIAN WORKER

Mirror.com.uk
By Steve Mccomish
Sep 12 2003

An Italian factory worker won £37,000 compensation after being racially taunted every day for seven years.

[37,500 British Pound(s) = 62,505.300 US Dollar(s)
1 US Dollar = 0.649 British Pound(s) ;1 British Pound = 1.667 US Dollar(s) ]

Salvatore Barresi, 38, was called a "f****** Italian b*****d", had teabags and wood hurled at him, was threatened with violence and forced to listen to colleagues insulting his wife.

After management ignored his complaints, he quit last year with depression. His union said: "We were astonished. This was racial abuse on a scale not heard before."

Yet Mr Barresi's main tormentor, John Evans, denied he was racist. He told a tribunal: "I have had dark people working with me." Asked to explain, he added: "Well, negroes."

Sicilian-born Mr Barresi could not speak English when he first joined the paper factory in 1995.

From the start, he was an outsider. And in months the merciless abuse began with Evans and five others making his working life a misery.

He told an employment tribunal at Leeds, where he claimed discrimination and unfair dismissal: "I was subjected daily to racist remarks of 'f*****g Italian b******, go back to Italy'."

One colleague threatened to kick his "f****** head in".

Mr Barresi added: "Because I like where I work to be clean, people called me a prima-donna.

"A few times Mr Evans would throw things at me - teabags and pieces of wood - and people would laugh at my accent and the way I spoke English."

Another colleague he rowed with told him: "You are in my country and you will use my rules." Cigarettes, pens and snacks went missing from his desk.

Arthur Firth, Mr Barresi's floor manager at P Garnett and Sons in Otley, West Yorks, was a distant relative of his wife Deborah.

Deborah, 36, frequently complained to him and he assured her he would protect her husband.

Yet nothing was done and the torrent of abuse continued. Mrs Barresi said: "It hurt because Arthur is a relative and he promised to look after Salvatore.

"We thought there'd be a log of all the complaints. It turned out no one knew anything about it."

When Mr Barresi, of Leeds, complained to the firm's higher management they claimed it was the first they had heard of the problem.

Still nothing was done. Instead bosses demanded machinist Mr Barresi, one of the most productive staff, work longer hours.

He ended up taking anti-depressants and left in October, saying he "needed to escape". He said: "I felt I would have a breakdown." P Garnett had no equal opportunities policy and had employed only two ethnic minority workers in seven years.

The tribunal ruled: "There was an inherent antipathy towards 'outsiders'. Mr Evans was guilty of serious racial discrimination over a very lengthy period."

Chairman Colin Grazin added: "There were a number of different people involved, including high level management." The Graphical Paper and Media Union said: "When managers were faced with complaints, they ignored them."

Mr Barresi was awarded £20,000 for hurt feelings, £5,000 in aggravated damages, £5,000 for psychological damage and £1,134 in lost earnings. He also received £6,000 interest.

Mrs Barresi said later: "We're happy with the result. Now we just want to get on with things." The firm refused to comment.

Mirror.co.uk - DAMAGES FOR TAUNTED ITALIAN WORKER
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=13398047&method=full&siteid=50143
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