‘Pub of the year’ sued by kitchen worker who said vinegar being left near him was a slur

A black kitchen porter at an award-winning pub sued for race discrimination claiming co-workers left bottles of vinegar near him because it rhymes with the N-word.

Willer Lafeuillee insisted colleagues at The Running Horses pub in Dorking, Surrey, did it to ‘send a message’.

He also accused them of discriminating against him by serving an overdone steak.

His claims were thrown out by an employment tribunal.

The panel heard Mr Lafeuillee, who is of black Caribbean heritage, only worked at The Running Horses for a few weeks before he was sacked for ‘unprofessional and confrontational’ behaviour.

The Running Horses, run by Little & Large Inns, was named the UK’s National Pub & Bar of the Year in 2023.

Mr Lafeuillee said that his colleagues at the pub placed bottles of vinegar near him as an attack on his skin colour.

The tribunal was told: ‘The significance of the vinegar bottle is said to be that it rhymes with the ‘N-word’ and so placing it near to him was, he says, meant to send that message.’

But they found the allegation was so ‘vague’ that it was dismissed from the list of incidents in dispute when his case came to a full tribunal hearing.

However, a number of other incidents remained, including Mr Lafeuillee’s allegation that ‘food being burnt and not done according to standard’ was discrimination against him.

He said that he went into the restaurant one evening to use his staff discount, ordering a T-bone steak and a bottle of wine.

The pub told the tribunal that orders came through via a system which meant the chef doing the cooking did not know who the meal was for.

The tribunal heard: ‘Mr Lafeuillee asked for a well-done steak.

‘When the waiter bought it to him he became angry because it was not cooked enough, he raised his voice and several customers looked across at him, and the atmosphere became very uncomfortable; the waiter apologised to him and it was taken to the kitchen to be cooked some more, but when it came back Mr Lafeuillee became angry again, raised his voice, took photos of the steak and said it was burned to a crisp.

‘He then sent the steak back again and ordered a sirloin, medium rare, and then complained that it was undercooked.’

Mr Lafeuillee even went into the kitchen at one point during this incident and ‘clapped or clicked his fingers at staff, shouted at them across the floor in front of guests and when he found that the steak was not to his liking, started shouting loudly, saying that he was not going to pay’.

He was given a verbal warning about his behaviour the next day.

After another incident in which Mr Lafeuillee acted aggressively, he was sacked.

His bosses said he was behaving ‘erratically and aggressively, to the extent that he was a danger to other members of staff’.

In other claims, he said he was discriminated because staff played music from rap artist Biggie Smalls and some of the lyrics contained the N-word, likewise with the song Gold Digger by Kanye West.

He made a vague allegation that he was harassed because one colleague would serve him a drink in a London Pride glass.

And, he said he was discriminated because one co-worker said Yabba Dabba Doo – the phrase from The Flintstones – at him.

Dismissing all of his claims, Employment Judge Fowell said: ‘We bear in mind that this was a diverse workforce, and that Mr Lafeuillee was treated with considerable restraint and consideration for most of his time at the company, such as in connection with the steak incident.

‘[The allegations] are largely the result of misinterpretation or have an innocent explanation.’

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