London, December 28, 2025: An Indian national has been awarded nearly £67,000 in compensation after a UK employment tribunal ruled that he was wrongfully dismissed and subjected to racial discrimination by his manager at a KFC franchise outlet in south-east London.
The tribunal found in favour of Madhesh Ravichandran, a native of Tamil Nadu, who had filed a case against Nexus Foods Limited, the company operating the West Wickham KFC outlet. Ravichandran alleged that he faced repeated racial abuse from his Sri Lankan Tamil manager, including being called a “slave” and hearing derogatory remarks such as “Indians are fraudsters”.
In a judgment released this week, Employment Tribunal Judge Paul Abbott held that the complaints of direct race discrimination were well-founded. The court noted that Ravichandran was treated less favourably because of his nationality, including the refusal of his holiday requests while similar requests from Sri Lankan Tamil colleagues were approved.
The tribunal observed that the use of racially offensive language by the manager violated Ravichandran’s dignity and created a hostile and degrading work environment. Ravichandran joined the outlet in January 2023 and reported directly to the restaurant manager after his interview.
According to the findings, tensions escalated in July 2023 when Ravichandran was repeatedly pressured to work excessive hours. The tribunal accepted his testimony that these persistent demands forced him to resign. During follow-up calls after submitting his notice, the manager was found to have acted in a racially abusive and threatening manner.
The tribunal ruled that Ravichandran was summarily dismissed during his notice period and denied his statutory entitlement to one week’s notice pay. It rejected the employer’s claim that there were valid grounds for dismissal without notice, holding that the termination amounted to wrongful dismissal.
As part of the relief granted, Ravichandran was awarded £62,690 in compensation, along with additional payments for unpaid holiday wages and failure to provide statutory employment particulars, taking the total compensation to approximately £66,800.
The tribunal also directed Nexus Foods Limited to implement a mandatory workplace discrimination training programme for all employees, including specialised training for managers on handling grievances, to be completed within six months of the judgment.
