‘Inclusivity’ goes badly wrong

The National Trust has been embroiled in an employment tribunal as a result of a well-intentioned attempt at ‘inclusivity’. Common sense prevailed in the end, but the whole episode has been a costly distraction from the charity’s work and should not have happened in the first place. The Daily Telegraph reports:

National Trust manager accused of being ‘white saviour’ in race row

Heritage site worker says she felt ‘very much degraded’ after she was asked to be part of an inclusivity team

The historic mill at Quarry Bank near Manchester

A National Trust manager was accused of being a “white saviour” by a colleague he invited to join a diversity group.

Abida Jenkins, who worked at a heritage site in Cheshire, sued the charity for race discrimination after she was asked to be part of its inclusivity team.

She claimed she was being “singled out” by her manager Wayne Carter because of her race.

She said she was “shocked, embarrassed, humiliated and very much degraded” by his invitation which she compared to “using a sledgehammer to break a vase”.

However, her claims were dismissed by an employment tribunal which ruled she had an “unjustified sense of grievance” and had “exaggerated her evidence”.

The tribunal, held in Liverpool, heard Mrs Jenkins started working at Quarry Bank Mill, a preserved textile factory in Styal, Cheshire, in summer 2022.

Mrs Jenkins, who has a degree in engineering, describes herself as a “person of colour” with Indian Pakistani heritage.

In early August 2022, she was approached by Mr Carter, who explained he was setting up a diversity group and asked if she was interested in joining.

Mrs Jenkins said he asked her repeatedly and she felt his requests were inappropriate as they were allegedly made in front of visitors.

Describing one incident, she said: “It felt he was using a sledgehammer to break a vase.

“I politely declined…he wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer…leading me to view him as just another superficial individual presenting himself as a ‘white saviour’ singling me out for his group only because I was an ethnic minority.”

She complained to her line manager about Mr Carter, who said he was mortified to have caused any upset.

Mr Carter said the reason he asked Mrs Jenkins more than once was probably because “I don’t believe I received a definitive yes or no answer”.

Mrs Jenkins resigned in 2023 after she received a verbal warning for using equipment at the museum without supervision.

She was “convinced because she had an engineering degree she should advance quickly”, the tribunal heard, and she was accused of using a “patronising tone” when speaking with bosses.

But her claims were dismissed by employment judge Dawn Shotter, who said Mrs Jenkins “had an unjustified sense of grievance, imagining slights and conspiracies when there were none”.

She added: “The tribunal concluded that [Mrs Jenkins] has exaggerated her evidence with regards to being invited to take part in the diversity group.

“It found she was not pressured by Wayne Carter to join, and his recollection of what transpired has been adversely affected by the passage of time and lack of detail in [her] allegations.

“[She]had not made it clear from the outset that she had no interest in being part of the diversity group.

“Had [Mrs Jenkins] genuinely felt Wayne Carter’s requests were inappropriate, especially as he asked her on the Mill floor in front of visitors, she would have raised a complaint at the time or soon after.”