A boss who went viral after being ordered to pay more than £23,500 for repeatedly calling an Irish worker a ‘potato’ says he believed it was ‘workplace banter’ but admits he got it ‘badly wrong’.
Mick Atkins, 56, says he has been unable to sleep as his construction firm’s 24-hour hotline was bombarded with calls after a tribunal ruled he racially harassed bookkeeper Bernadette Hayes, and he has even been sent death threats.
He was ordered to pay Ms Hayes, who was born in Portadown, Northern Ireland, thousands in compensation after a tribunal ruled he had called her a ‘potato’, ‘Paddy’ and ‘pikey’.
Ms Hayes said the remarks left her feeling ‘small, insecure, violated and extremely anxious’, adding that she came to dread going into work at building contractor West Leeds Civils.
Now Mr Atkins says he wants to publicly apologise for what he had thought was harmless ‘playful banter’ and admitted the case had been a ‘hard lesson to learn’.
He said: ‘I genuinely thought it was workplace banter. I can see now I got that badly wrong.
‘What I thought was messing about was clearly not taken that way, and I am sorry for the distress it caused Bernie.
‘These were comments which I thought were just back-and-forth playful banter with someone I had worked with for two years and whom I considered to be a friend.’
Mr Atkins, a father-of-three from Bradford, West Yorkshire, said he had since been subjected to abusive messages and threats online.
He said: ‘I’ve been getting calls day and night from withheld numbers. I’ve had to delete my social media.
‘One woman screamed down the phone that I should hang my head in shame. Another asked me, “What are you playing at?”
‘There was one Irish guy who said, “Me and the boys are over next week – we’re going to pay you a visit.”
‘They’ve got hold of the company’s 24-hour phone number and have been ringing every ten minutes.
‘Some of the messages have been vile. I’ve had people calling me all sorts, and there have been threats made. It’s frightening, to be honest.
‘This is the first time in my life that I’m thinking of just wrapping up and calling it a day.
‘It’s been awful. I accept that I shouldn’t have said those things, but I don’t feel that I deserve to get death threats.
‘Even my daughter has been getting stick.
‘I know people may say that’s nothing compared to what Bernie went through, and maybe that’s fair, but it has made me take a hard look at myself.’
The tribunal heard Ms Hayes began working for the civil engineering contractor in 2021 as an office and finance manager.
This was undoubtedly innocuous repartee, but we are not allowed harmless joshing anymore – it’s all doom and gloom, although I must admit I would have been insulted being called a ‘pikey’, but clearly it was only meant in fun.
I myself would have been sentenced to death back in the day with my banter and wit. Now, if you want to have a little banter with the boys, you have to do it from home, not out in the public eye, because someone out there will undoubtedly say that you’ve insulted them and take you to court.
Banter is part of socialising, but socialising is a thing of the past now with all this woke stuff, and now all people see are pound signs and a chance to make some money.
But we must pause to take into account someone’s emotions. Before making any type of joke, I always consider my surroundings since, let’s be honest, not everyone has a sense of humour, and it can occasionally make the recipient feel unhappy or uneasy. What may be hilarious to one person may not be humorous to another.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 