National Trust employee who branded her supervisor ‘white saviour’ for asking if she’d like to affix range group should pay charity £19,000 after dropping race discrimination case

A National Trust worker and sewing influencer who branded her manager a ‘white saviour’ after he asked her if she would like to join a diversity group has been ordered to pay the charity £19,000 after she lost a race discrimination case. 

Abida Jenkins, who is of Indian-Pakistani descent, lashed out after receiving an invite to join the organisation’s inclusivity team from her boss Wayne Carter.  

She claimed the invitation was ‘inappropriate’ because she was a ‘person of colour’ who was being ‘singled out’ due to her race.

Following an employment tribunal in March last year, Mrs Jenkins’ case was dismissed after it came to the conclusion that she had ‘exaggerated her evidence with regards to being invited to take part in the diversity group’.

Judge Dawn Shotter added: ‘The Tribunal took the view [Mrs Jenkins] had an unjustified sense of grievance, imagining slights and conspiracies when there were none.’

Now, a unanimous judgement from the Tribunal has ordered that Mrs Jenkins must pay £19,000 towards the National Trust’s legal costs.

The employment tribunal last year heard that Mr Carter was ‘mortified’ when he found out he had ’caused upset’ to Mrs Jenkins and said this was not his ‘intention’.

After resigning from her role, the engineering graduate – who was said to be ‘sensitive’ to ‘diversity issues’ – took legal action against the heritage and nature conservation charity, claiming she had been discriminated against.

The tribunal, held in Liverpool, heard Mrs Jenkins started working at Quarry Bank Mill, a heritage site in Styal, Cheshire, in the summer of 2022 as a ‘technical demonstrator’.

The National Trust-run museum houses industrial factory cotton-making machines where visitors are shown how they work.

Mrs Jenkins, who has a degree in engineering, describes herself as a ‘person of colour’ with Indian-Pakistani heritage. She is also a YouTuber, posting sewing videos to her 63,000-strong fans.

The hearing was told volunteer and community manager Mr Carter’s role included relaunching a diversity group to ‘consider the spectrum of protected characteristics relating to volunteers, employees, and visitors’.

Mr Carter would often walk around the Mill and interact with staff, talking to them about their work, the tribunal heard.

In early August 2022, Mr Carter explained to Mrs Jenkins that he was setting up a group focusing on ‘diversity and inclusion’.

During the conversation, he asked the demonstrator whether she was interested in joining.

Mrs Jenkins alleged that during her employment, he ‘repeatedly’ asked her to be part of the group.

The employee told the tribunal she ‘made it clear from the outset that she had no interest’ and she ‘politely declined’ the invitation. 

It was heard she felt his requests were ‘inappropriate’ and left her ‘shocked’ – especially 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. He spoke so loud.

‘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 said that she felt as ‘if I was singled out as a person of colour by Wayne and no one else was asked to join this group’.

But, Mr Carter’s evidence differed, and he said the reason he asked more than once was likely because ‘I don’t believe I received a definitive yes or no answer’.

Later that month, Mrs Jenkins told a colleague that she was ‘offended’ by his requests and said she felt ’embarrassed, humiliated and very much degraded’ by Mr Carter.

Her co-workers attempted to put her ‘mind at ease’ by saying that they thought Mr Carter’s group was an ‘excellent idea’ and that he had only approached her as part of his ‘duties’. 

She complained to her line manager about the matter and Mr Carter was spoken to.

It was heard that he was ‘mortified’ to have caused upset and said ‘it was not his intention and he would respect her request not to speak to her about it again’.

Mrs Jenkins said she was ‘happy with the outcome and did not intend to take the matter any further’.

It was heard in February the following year, Mrs Jenkins met with her manager Clare Brown and made several criticism about the ‘performance’ of her colleagues.

By this point, her relationship with Ms Brown was ‘breaking down’.

The relationship ‘difficulties’ between Mrs Jenkins and Ms Brown ‘came to a head’ on April when they argued during a meeting over issues with the machinery at the site.

Ms Brown asked HR to remind Mrs Jenkins about the ‘remit of her role’ as it was understood that Mrs Jenkins was ‘convinced because she had an engineering degree she should advance quickly’.

Mrs Jenkins, who was accused of using a ‘patronising tone’ when speaking with bosses, received a verbal warning in June for using equipment at the museum without supervision.

In light of this, she submitted a formal grievance and then resigned.

The employee took the trust to the tribunal, making numerous claims of race, sex and age discrimination.

But they were dismissed Employment Judge Dawn Shotter who said: ‘The Tribunal took the view [Mrs Jenkins] had an unjustified sense of grievance, imagining slights and conspiracies when there were none.’

On the diversity group claim, she said: ‘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.

‘The Tribunal found [Mrs Jenkins] had not been singled out to join the diversity group on the basis of colour.

‘[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.

‘The incident did not take place as alleged by [Mrs Jenkins].’

The panel found that Mrs Jenkins was on her own account, ‘sensitive to diversity issues’.

A spokeswoman for the National Trust told the Daily Mail last year: ‘We have a duty of care to current and former staff and volunteers, and a legal obligation not to breach individual confidentiality.

‘We’re therefore unable to go into details about specific cases. We’re committed to creating an inclusive place for people to work and volunteer.’

The Daily Mail has approached Mrs Jenkins for a comment.