£100m military contract lined up for company mired in racism allegations

Complaints about bullying at Sodexo include charge that director hit employee and said it was 'punch a black week'



One of Britain's largest military outsourcing contracts is on the verge of being awarded to a company facing damaging claims about racism in its defence division – sparked after an employee was hit by her director who said it was "punch a black week".

Sodexo, a multinational company that operates privatised prisons, NHS pathology services and school kitchens, is the frontrunner to win a contract to run six military bases in the Mediterranean. The deal is worth up to £100m over three years and the winner will be announced next month.

The company's highly lucrative defence division is facing claims that its personnel department, which is meant to police employees' behaviour, has been systematically "ethnically cleansed" of non-white staff.

Sodexo's senior management including Michel Landel, the Paris-based group chief executive, and the company's UK chief executive, Debbie White, have been informed of the charges, which accuse senior managers including Rachel James, the defence division's personnel director, of racism and sexism.

Under public contracts regulations, a public body may exclude a bidder or reject a bid where it is found the organisation has "committed grave misconduct in the course of their business".

At the defence department's Colchester offices, one black employee complained she was told that certain rooms and corridors in the personnel department were out of bounds because they were for "whites only". This she says was dismissed by executives as "banter".

In other instances, it was claimed that black staff felt they were being tarred as "lazy". The company is also accused, by at least one employee, of "creating and inciting a hostile climate of distrust against difference".

In one instance, a white male executive allegedly had to remonstrate with a junior colleague who, upon the arrival of a black employee, said: "There is another black one, they are taking over."

Staff say matters came to a head in October 2012 when an African-Caribbean female manager was punched by a top executive of the defence division, who was a white man. When she asked why he had done this, he responded: "It's punch a black week."

In December 2012, the company accepted the events took place, but said it was "unable to conclude that this behaviour was due to ... skin colour". The black female manager left the company with a six-figure payout in early 2013. Her white male boss, who made the remarks, also left.

The next year saw an exodus of female non-white staff from the company. Six months after the punching incident, the Asian head of human resources for Cyprus was dismissed without warning for alleged incompetence. However, she threatened to take the company to court for unlawful dismissal and Sodexo settled out of court.

Another two non-white female employees of the human resources department are currently taking the company to court over claims of racism and sexism.

In the first case, a black female personnel adviser claims she was ostracised by members of her team. During an investigation into homophobic bullying in June last year, it is alleged, a colleague bemoaned to her the fact he could not use the "n-word" any more for fear of offending people. She also claims she was labelled a "part-timer" because of her childcare arrangements.

The adviser went off sick in September last year and was replaced by a white woman who left the company six months later. The black female adviser has launched two claims against the company for racist and sexist bullying.

The last remaining non-white face in the personnel department, a senior African-Caribbean manager, complained she had endured a year of "determined and relentless bullying". She says she was asked to leave the office after she told her boss that she was pregnant in January this year. She claims that she had attempted to raise concerns over racist remarks but had been frozen out.

The Guardian understands she still employed by the company but has not worked in the office for almost a year. She is currently taking action for racial and sexual discrimination against the company.

In 2005, Sodexo was forced to pay $80m (£47.2m) to settle a lawsuit brought by thousands of black employees in America, who charged that they were routinely barred from promotions and segregated within the company. With a global workforce operating in 80 countries, Sodexo has stressed its ethical principles of "business integrity" and "respect for people and equal opportunity".

A Sodexo spokesperson said: "Sodexo takes allegations of this nature extremely seriously, as these behaviours are absolutely contrary to our organisational values. We have policies and procedures in place to ensure any allegation is dealt with robustly.

"Sodexo Defence is a division operating over a number of locations with more than 10,000 employees. There was an incident at a single Sodexo Defence site involving two employees. This was investigated thoroughly under Sodexo's disciplinary policy at the time and a senior manager left the company in 2012 as a result. We are aware of recent allegations that have been made and it would be inappropriate for us to comment while our investigations are ongoing.

"As a services company, our 35,000 people are our most important asset and having an engaged workforce is critical to our success. Last year, we received the Investors in People award in recognition of our positive employee engagement, and we received the Personal, Fair and Diverse award from the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion."

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: "No decision has been taken on this contract so it would be wrong to speculate. We take seriously the conduct of all our contractors and will consider their diversity policies where relevant to the subject matter of the contract."

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/18/sodexo-military-contract-racism-allegations

Sounds a delightful company   

Another contract goes to a foreign company - French this time.

Are our own military people not capable of running these bases? Of course they are.

Scandalous.

I agree, British Values!   

Sodexo are full of mongs and retards who fail the McDonald's selection process

You will fit right in Sasquatch

Bless you Smelly, but I think they are right up your street, you will probably get a letter from them soon if they have a paintball section  ::D:: 

Sassy wrote:Bless you Smelly, but I think they are right up your street,  you will probably get a letter from them soon if they have a paintball section  ::D:: 

Bug you doesn't it??

What bugs me? It bugs me so much that I don't know what you are talking about, so I guess I ain't bugged lol

Allegations?

Oh.

Anyone remember 'British jobs for British workers'spouted by labour years ago....???



And then what actually happened......


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1580544/Nine-in-10-UK-jobs-go-to-foreigners.html


As they imported millions of cheap labour which undermined the British workers, drove down wages while pushing up the cost of living, and in many cases left British people out of work.



But now we have the lefties digging at a contract possibly going to a foreign company....


The hypocrisy Of the left knows no bounds!!!




Sassy and iron brain, you should hang your heads in shame!

BigAndy9 wrote:Allegations?

Oh.

Oh. It's funny seeing what you think of these allegations compared to what you said about the Birmingham "Muslim takeover" allegations when they first came out.

Oh, indeed. I guess allegations are only allegations, unless they're made against groups you're bigoted against? You would have made one hell of a judge in Salem, Mass. back in the 1600s ...

Ben_Reilly wrote:

BigAndy9 wrote:Allegations?

Oh.

Oh. It's funny seeing what you think of these allegations compared to what you said about the Birmingham "Muslim takeover" allegations when they first came out.

Oh, indeed. I guess allegations are only allegations, unless they're made against groups you're bigoted against? You would have made one hell of a judge in Salem, Mass. back in the 1600s ...

No problem Benji-boy.

Well, i have personal dealings with many employees from Sodexho - i'm quite sure they've had dealings on military camps for a few years - cookhouses/NAAFI's etc.

Never had a problem personally and never seen any problems.

All allegations should be investigated.