Sacked Greggs worker wins race discrimination case after colleagues called him 'ganja man'

A black supervisor sacked from Greggs, who was called "ganja man" by colleagues, has won a race discrimination case. A tribunal heard Ebeneezer Tagoe was sacked from his role at the bakery in Crossbush Service Station, in West Sussex, for gross misconduct over allegations he gave away sausage rolls, pasties, and coffees for free.

It was said Mr Tagoe was known as "ganja" man at the branch of Greggs and was accused of selling marijuana. A tribunal heard Mr Tagoe, who has a wife and children, worked at the service station when it was previously a Subway from 2016. The outlet became a Greggs in 2023. A tribunal in Southampton, Hants, heard that: "Under the Subway franchise there had been a relatively relaxed attitude to such things as staff taking food and drink items from the outlet, or to providing free items to customers - for example in response to a complaint."

In March 2023, he missed the meeting, because of illness, in which a policy was implemented stating that staff were no longer to give away free food or drink and could only have one or two coffees for free.

At the same time, allegations were made against him of inappropriate behaviour, unwanted touching and stating that he wanted to 'rape one of his supervisors'. This made him 'shocked and upset' as he was suspended while an investigation took place.

He was asked questions about giving food away for free, making physical contact with colleagues and jokingly asking customers if they wanted some ganja. He denied any wrongdoing. He was taken to a disciplinary meeting for allegations of 'gross misconduct' relating to 'theft, serious misuse an organisation's name, harassment and breach of food safety law'.

It was found that the theft allegations related to three instances of taking food, one of taking a reusable cup and four of giving away food or drink. The items involved ranged from £1 to £5.

He was accused of giving away 'sausage rolls in two bags worth £1.50 to customers for free'. The harassment claim was against his wife, who worked at the outlet, whom he hugged in the kitchen in front of colleagues.

He was sacked without a notice period and replaced by a Sri Lankan employee in April 2023.

One of the allegations that was not upheld was that he offered drugs to customers and became known as the 'ganja man' - due to his Ghanaian and Rastafarian heritage.

Mr Tagoe took the case to an employment tribunal in Southampton, Hants, where it was unanimously decided that he had been unfairly dismissed and that he had been discriminated against because of his race.

He was also given £1,413 in unpaid holiday pay.

It was judged that the appeal process had been 'rushed' and several of his actions did not add up to gross misconduct.

Employment Judge Adrian Hogarth said: "[Mr Tagoe] has always maintained that the disciplinary process resulting in dismissal was a "stitch up" because for some reason Mr Fernando wanted to get rid of him. He says that reason was, one way or another, linked to his race.

"We were certainly struck by the speed with which numerous allegations of incidents of misconduct over a short period of a few days... were identified, investigated and then raised in the formal disciplinary process against a long-standing employee."

The judge added: "It is not clear to us why Mr Fernando jumped straight to investigation and disciplinary action without engaging with [Mr Tagoe] about the new policy and explaining that his conduct was now contrary to it. This was not in our view a reasonable thing for an employer to do.

"In our view the failure to allow time sufficient for [Mr Tagoe] to defend himself effectively was a fatal flaw in the procedure that rendered the procedure unfair, even without any of the other shortcomings we have identified.

"The misconduct around drugs that related to [Mr Tagoe's] nickname (used by some customers and staff) as "the ganja man" was plainly linked to his appearance as a black African man of a Rastafarian appearance.

"It is hard to escape the conclusion that his race was at least a factor in the drugs-related allegations that were made against him."

Compensation is yet to be determined.