A Scouse bus driver working in the Shetland Isles has lost a tribunal after claiming his boss' use of Harry Enfield's 'Scousers' sketch to mock him was racist.
Antony Ryan, who grew up in Liverpool, said he was left feeling 'insulted' after his boss Margaret Robertson, from coach hire service R Robertson & Son Ltd, told him to 'calm down, calm down'.
The Harry Enfield & Chums TV show, which aired in the 90s, featured a sketch called 'The Scousers', who regularly used the catchphrase 'calm down, calm down'.
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An employment tribunal heard that during a grievance meeting between Ryan and a colleague in August last year, Robertson 'mocked' his accent and said: "You boys need to go and calm down, calm down."
Ryan believed Robertson's use of the catchphrase was a reference to the stereotype and left him feeling 'discriminated against and ridiculed'.
He was so 'offended' by the incident he left work and sent a text to say: "I feel so insulted and disgusted at present and am in no frame of mind to work at present."
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He then failed to turn up to work the next day.
Ryan was fired in January this year for 'inappropriate conduct' and 'unauthorised absence'.
In response to being sacked, Ryan brought the Scotland-based company before an employment tribunal.
However, his claims were dismissed, with the panel finding the comment was 'unprofessional and 'uncalled for' but that it was not race discrimination as he wasn't being targeted for his English 'national origin'.
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The ruling concluded: "The 'catchphrase' seemed to relate to the use of the words 'calm down, calm down' in a Liverpool accent.
"The discrimination claim is wholly reliant on the use of those words.
"Mr Ryan is from Liverpool and it is because he hails from that city that he took offence.
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"I agree that the alleged comment could mock Mr Ryan as a Liverpudlian but not as an English person.
"I do not consider that simply because that city is based in England that Mr Ryan was being mocked for being English and so mocked on account of his national origin.
"The alleged words used could only refer to a very specific comic stereotype of a Liverpudlian and not directly or by inference a reference to national origin.
"The comment may well have been unprofessional or uncalled for but it is not in my view discriminatory because there was no mocking of the claimant on account of his national origin namely being English.
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"The phrase used was not indicative of discrimination against English people and so the claimant could not have been discriminated against."
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