Black faculty employee informed he was ‘punching above his weight’ for having age-gap relationship loses race discrimination declare

A black school worker who was told he had ‘punched above his weight’ for his age-gap relationship received an ‘unwanted’ comment, but it was not discrimination, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Jamiu Alagangan, former lunchtime supervisor of Ormiston New Academy in Wolverhampton, claimed the comment pertaining to himself and his wife ‘violated his dignity’ and sued for racial discrimination. 

With some ‘hestitation’, an employment tribunal in Birmingham agreed it ‘had that effect on him’ and was ‘unwanted’.

‘After all, the implication of such words is along the lines of ‘you’ve done better than expected’, which has both positive and negative connotations,’ employment Judge Hilary Harding said.

But the tribunal concluded it was not racist, describing it as ‘a moment of fleeting offence’.

‘Analysed as a complaint on its own, however, we did not consider that [Mr Alagangan] had proved it was reasonable for the conduct to be regarded as having the proscribed effect,’ the judge said.

‘This was a one off, very short lived, incident and there was nothing overtly offensive about the comment made.’

In recent years, it has become increasingly common to describe someone as ‘punching’ if they have a partner who is significantly more attractive than them.

Jamiu Alagangan, sued Ormiston New Academy in Wolverhampton for discrimination after he was told by a colleague he had ‘punched above his weight’, an employment tribunal heard

The tribunal in Birmingham was told Mr Alagangan worked part time as a lunchtime supervisor at Ormiston New Academy in Wolverhampton from September 2021.

In May 2022 two pupils made complaints about his behaviour towards them and he was suspended.

Although this was lifted and he was invited back to work the following month, Mr Alagangan went off sick and launched several grievances about the treatment he claimed to have received at the school.

In one, he accused academy principal Craig Cooling of making remarks that he considered offensive.

‘He complained that a few weeks previously [the principal] had started asking him questions about his family life and children, which he described as a normal thing, to be friendly and approachable,’ the tribunal heard.

‘He said that he had told Mr Cooling about his and his wife’s age and Mr Cooling had then said ‘you are one of those that punch above your weight’. He described himself as shocked.’ 

The hearing was told the grievance investigation found the remark to be ‘well meaning and complimentary’ rather than sexual or racial harassment.

Mr Alagangan – who also complained of racism when Mr Cooling said of his trousers ‘I don’t know how you are able to afford those’ – never returned to work and was fired for unauthorised absence in December 2022.

The tribunal concluded Mr Alagangan’s treatment was not racist, describing principal Craig Cooling’s remark  as ‘a moment of fleeting offence’. Pictured: Midlands (West) Employment Tribunal in Birmingham

He sued the academy, Mr Cooling and others connected with the running of the school for race discrimination, race and sexual harassment.

However, his claims were dismissed.

Of the ‘punch above your weight remark’, the tribunal said: ‘We did not consider that the actions of Mr Cooling could be characterised as conduct that had the purpose of violating [his] dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for him.

‘We concluded, with some hesitation, that [he] had proved that it had that effect on him, particularly given his own perspective.

‘The words do not, on their face, have any association with race.

‘There was, moreover, no association to race provided by the context in which the conversation took place.

‘To the contrary, the context in which the comment was made was a discussion concerning the age differential between [Alagangan] and his wife. That is not something that is related to race.’