BT employee will get £10,000 payout for unfair sacking after calling Dundee United fan an ‘Arab’ – despite the fact that that’s supporters’ nickname

A BT worker won a £10,000 payout for being unfairly sacked after calling a Dundee United fan an ‘Arab’ and bosses raised concerns.

Jack Caird successfully sued the telecoms giant after he was sacked for gross misconduct in February 2025 over a series of comments he made.

Supporters of Dundee United FC have been known as the Arabs since the 1960s, and the judge found that Mr Caird’s use of the term had been unfairly used to uphold his dismissal.

The customer service advisor, from Carnoustie, Angus, was dismissed following a probe into messages he sent through BT’s internal system.

He was alleged to have sent three messages that were of ‘concern’ to his bosses.

In the first message initially flagged, he called a colleague an ‘Arab b******’ after they wished somebody a happy birthday, reports The Courier.

He also questioned an internal email about Islamophobia Awareness Month and events being run for employees by BT’s Muslim Network.

Sharing a screenshot of the email, he wrote ‘a full month’ and ‘cos that’s what this nation needs right now’.

A colleague responded with ‘bit Islamophobic there Jack, think you should attend’, while another wrote ‘wanna bomb it’ and ‘karma’.

In the final message, sent on October 31, 2024, Caird said he was going to Warsaw for two nights and would then ‘go see Auschwitz’.

To this, a colleague responded: ‘Bring [us] back a pair of shoes’.

Disciplinary proceedings began in January 2025 with a 15-minute meeting between Mr Caird and his line Manage, Jamie MacDougall, when he was told that he would be suspended while the messages were investigated.

The next day, Mr MacDougall recommended that the case be dealt with as gross misconduct by the company.

Mr Caird, who supports Dundee FC, explained his ‘Arab b******’ comment was directed at a Dundee United fan, and made use of a common nickname for the club’s supporters – The Arabs.

There are two prevailing theories on the origin of the name, one being that the side once played on a gritted icy pitch so well they were described as ‘taking to the sand like Arabs’.

The other holds that a supporter known for getting the crowd going, who resembled Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, shouted to fans one day: ‘I am Nasser and you are my Arabs!’

Mr Caird explained that he and the recipient of the Arab jibe regularly bantered about their footballing rivalry, and it was made in that context.

He argued there was no intention to abuse or hurt his colleague – though acknowledged his language was not appropriate for the workplace.

During the probe, BT’s Insight and Optimisation Manager, a Mr Aitken, said he was aware of the nickname and satisfied that it was poor grounds for a disciplinary allegation.

Crucially, however, the company later rowed back on this decision and used the Arab comment to justify Mr Caird’s eventual sacking.

Addressing one of the other messages of concern, Mr Caird said he shared the Islamophobia Awareness Month screenshot because he questioned the length of time it was running for.

He also explained that he had good relations with friends and colleagues who are Muslim.

Mr Caird criticised the ‘karma’ and ‘wanna bomb it’ comments from his colleagues as ‘immature and naive’.

Mr Aitken set out his decision in to sack Mr Caird, who was dismissed on February 12 and launched an appeal two days later.

The Arab comment was not used as justification, given that Mr Aitken agreed the allegation based on it was not well-founded.

BT manager Jeremy Smitham conducted the appeal and rejected it.

In the course of this, however, he overturned the prior decision of Mr Aitken and said the ‘Arab b******’ comment constituted a ‘serious breach’ of BT policy.

It was then used to justify Mr Caird’s sacking.

Mr Smitham made a similar ruling in relation to Mr Caird’s Islamophobia Awareness Month comment. 

After a hearing in October 2025, Judge Jude Shepherd ruled that Mr Caird’s dismissal was ‘procedurally and substantively unfair’.

She ruled that it was not ‘within the range of reasonable responses’ for BT to dismiss him for expressing cynicism about the duration of Islamophobia Awareness Month or failing to report comments made by colleagues.

Judge Shepherd added: ‘The claimant had not been dismissed for use of the phrase ‘Arab b******’ as it had been accepted that this was not racially discriminatory and instead referred to the nickname for Dundee United fans.

‘That disciplinary allegation was dismissed in its entirety at the disciplinary hearing stage, but was subsequently used to justify upholding the claimant’s dismissal on appeal.’

Mr Caird, who secured a new job with Virgin Media in November 2025, was awarded £10,926.46.

A BT Group spokesperson told The Courier: ‘We respect the Tribunal’s finding and will be complying with the outcome.’