A Glasgow employment tribunal has awarded actress and former duty manager Sky Sinclair £18,568 after finding that the owner of a city centre bar made race- and sex-related remarks that created a degrading and hostile work environment and that her subsequent dismissal was unfair.
Employment Judge Shona MacLean concluded that bar owner Ahmed Soliman made unsolicited race-related comments to Sinclair, 35, on at least two occasions in 2023 — including telling her, "You look very Aryan with your blue eyes and blonde hair" — and later saying, "oh yeah I forgot you like white people better" and asking, "how was Germany?" The tribunal found Sinclair had no connection to Germany and that, in light of the earlier remark, she reasonably interpreted the question as suggesting an association with Nazi ideology.
The hearing in Glasgow heard that Sinclair, from Ayr, began working as duty manager at The Old Toll Bar in July 2022. She told the tribunal she perceived the first comment as a joke but felt uncomfortable and unsure how to respond. The judge found Mr. Soliman appeared to derive satisfaction from her discomfort and that the remarks placed her in a difficult position as the business owner.
The tribunal also heard that in late October 2023 Sinclair privately messaged Mr. Soliman to express concern about a comment he had made in a staff group chat and about a tense atmosphere when he was present. Mr. Soliman replied that he was not blaming staff for quiet periods but needed to control spending. Sinclair later reported that Mr. Soliman became distant; the tribunal heard he deleted a message from her asking for support and did not reply to a follow-up. A manager told Sinclair this was because she had called Mr. Soliman "threatening," and reported Mr. Soliman had commented, "You just get some females like that." The judge found that comment to be sex-related and reasonable grounds for Sinclair's upset.
Sinclair was removed from the work group chat a month before she was dismissed in April 2024. On the day she was sacked, she said a manager told her she was being dismissed for "poor sales performance" and instructed her to leave immediately. The tribunal found no evidence of misconduct and accepted Sinclair's evidence that her reported sales were comparable to colleagues and reflected shift performance rather than individual failings. Judge MacLean said the dismissal appeared predetermined and may have been intended to avoid Sinclair acquiring statutory employment rights.
The judge ruled that Mr. Soliman's comments had violated Sinclair's dignity and created a degrading, intimidating, humiliating and offensive environment. She awarded Sinclair compensation for race and sex discrimination and for unfair dismissal, totalling £18,568.
Sinclair trained at the UK Screen Acting Academy and has additional qualifications as a primary school teacher and hypnotherapist. She has appeared in numerous short films since 2016 and recently completed filming as the leading role in the feature film "Zanni," described as a gothic fantasy. Sinclair told the tribunal she was unable to comment on the case at the time because she was attending an audition.
The Old Toll Bar is one of Glasgow's older licensed premises. The employment judgment set out the incidents, the timing of messages and the steps leading to Sinclair's dismissal and relied on the judge's assessment of credibility and surrounding circumstances in finding the comments occurred and constituted unwanted conduct. The tribunal's decision ordered the employer to pay the awarded compensation to Sinclair.
No further comment from the respondents was recorded in the tribunal documents released alongside the judgment. The ruling underscores that unsolicited remarks linking an employee to racist ideology, and demeanors or comments that single out employees by sex, can amount to unlawful discrimination and contribute to an unfair dismissal finding.