Security man who struck youth gets €20k

The Irish arm of Tesco has been ordered to pay €20,885 to a racially abused security worker who struck a youth with a shopping basket.

The Employment Appeals Tribunal made the award after finding that Olatunji Lyinolakan had been unfairly dismissed by Tesco Ireland Ltd after the night-time incident at its store in Celbridge, Co Kildare.

In his evidence to the tribunal, Mr Lyinolakan admitted to striking the youth in the middle of the body with the shopping basket after taking up work at 10pm on September 2, 2010.

He told the tribunal the youth had threatened to kill him and his family, and made other obscene threats.

According to the tribunal, CCTV footage of the incident “showed six youths congregating outside the store for a period of time, interfering with shopping trolleys and signs, urinating, and making monkey gestures towards a security guard”.

The footage, according to the tribunal, shows the youth who was struck following Mr Lyinolakan into the store on a couple of occasions and then smashing the security gates.

The footage shows the youth in shorts taking off his shirt and returning to gesture at Mr Lyinolakan, who eventually struck the youth with a shopping basket.

Mr Lyinolakan said that when he and a colleague initially approached the group, the youths started shouting obscenities and racial abuse at them.

After approaching the youths a third time, a scuffle ensured where Mr Lyinolakan was placed in a head grip by the youth but managed to wriggle free.

Mr Lyinolakan told the tribunal he felt threatened, believed that he used reasonable force, and tried to defend himself when hitting the youth with the basket.

The security guard said he had previously suffered an injury arising from an unrelated incident while working as a Tesco security guard and had lodged a negligence claim against the company months before the current incident. Mr Lyinolakan was suspended after the previous incident.

He told the tribunal he held out the shopping basket to scare the youth, but the youth did not stop so Mr Lyinolakan had to use it. He said he was not aggressive because if he was he would have used it repeatedly.

The unnamed Tesco store manager at the hearing claimed that Mr Lyinolakan’s actions on the night represented serious misconduct and the security guard was dismissed by letter in November 2010 after “a full and thorough investigation”. The store manager claimed Mr Lyinolakan had inflamed an already volatile situation by striking the youth.

After finding that Mr Lyinolakan was unfairly dismissed, the tribunal awarded him €19,000 under the Unfair Dismissal Acts and a further €1,188 under the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts.

Amanda Kane of the Mandate union represented Mr Lyinolakan at the hearing and said the award is a “good outcome” for him.

However, she added: “It is a sad indictment of Tesco that this man lost his job after being victim of a racist attack.”