ET rules “Borat” is race discrimination aimed at Polish Worker.

An Employment Tribunal rules that using the name of “Borat” to someone from Eastern Europe amounts to direct race discrimination.

In 2010 Mr Ruda, a welder, claimed that, in the autumn of 2007, he had been given the nickname "Borat", the name of the film and television character created by by Sacha Baron Cohen. The allegation was one of more than a dozen, the vast majority of which the tribunal rejected, describing Mr Ruda's evidence as "less than persuasive and less than honest".

However, the tribunal held that Mr Ruda had been harassed on the grounds of race by a colleague calling him "Borat" and that the use of the nickname created a degrading and humiliating working environment for him. The nickname also constituted direct race discrimination. The judgment explained that someone who had all the characteristics of Mr Ruda but was neither from Poland nor perceived to be of Eastern European origin would not have had the nickname applied to him.

The tribunal also held that Mr Ruda had been subjected to sexual orientation discrimination by a colleague's use of the words "gay" and "wanking" towards him.

This case should be a warning for employers; managers and employees may need to be reminded that it can be race discrimination to harass or treat less favourably someone on the basis of nationality, which is given the same protection under legislation as the colour of someone's skin.