Indian health worker called auntie, wins harassment claim in UK

An Indian-origin healthcare assistant employed with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has won a harassment claim over being called “auntie” by a nurse colleague of Ghanaian heritage. 

Watford Employment Tribunal Judge George Alliott upheld that Ilda Esteves was harassed on the grounds of age and sex and directed the West London NHS Trust to pay her a total of 1,425.15 pounds in damages for “injury to feelings”. A three-judge panel, which heard the case last year and issued detailed reasons behind the judgment last month, accepted that “auntie” is a term of respect for older people in Ghanaian culture. However, staff nurse Charles Oppong was responsible for leading the teams on the ward and should not have made such comments. “We find that Charles Oppong’s purpose was probably an offensive attempt at humour,” notes the judgment. “We find that the claimant did perceive it as creating an offensive environment. 

We find that the circumstances of the comments being made in the office and in the corridor and at handover were such that it had the effect of creating an offensive environment. We find that it was reasonable for the comments to have that effect.

Consequently, the claimant’s claim of harassment on this ground succeeds,” it reads.