A FORMER Dyson employee was subjected to racial discrimination, a tribunal decided last week.

Paul Blake took his former employer to the tribunal after he was dismissed following a disagreement with a colleague last May, claiming unfair dismissal and discrimination on the grounds of his race and disability.

Mr Blake, 37, from Portway in Chippenham objected to comments he felt were racist.

He also claimed he did not receive adequate support from Dyson for the cluster headaches he suffers from.

The tribunal agreed he had been discriminated against because of his race and awarded him £5,000, but his claims of unfair dismissal and discrimination due to his disability were not upheld.

Mr Blake claimed he had been subject to racial discrimination during a course he had attended in June 2000.

Those attending were asked what could cause contamination in plastic components. Mr Blake claimed his colleague Steve Boardman said "foreign bodies", a comment he felt was racist.

Mr Boardman was approached by Mr Blake's manager, Nicola McGrath and asked about the comment. She said Mr Boardman had been shocked by the suggestion it had been racist.

Last May, Mr Blake said a colleague told him that Mr Boardman had returned from working near Birmingham referring to workers there as "wogs and Pakis" and used a four-letter word about them.

Mr Blake said he had argued with the colleague and had gone outside the building to settle the matter verbally.

His colleague pushed past him to go back inside, but Mr Blake did not feel the matter had been resolved and grabbed his colleague, tearing the other man's shirt.

Dyson dismissed Mr Blake for gross misconduct, but he felt this was unjustified and that in a similar incident, where an employee had grabbed a colleague around the neck, the man had been sent home.

Dyson refuted this claim, saying there had been no evidence of a fight taking place in the earlier case.

Representing Dyson, Jason Smith asked how Mr Blake could take offence to comments not made in his presence.

Mr Blake said: "You are naive if you think if someone says wogs and Pakis in private it's not directed at you."

A Dyson spokesman said: "The tribunal found against Dyson. Dyson believes this decision is unsound and is deciding whether to appeal."