A TOP solicitor working for Essex County Council praised the management techniques of Hitler in front of his staff, and earned the nickname 'Piggy Eyes' for the way he ogled women.
The criticisms were levelled against county solicitor Phillip Thomson during the course of an employment tribunal brought by black ex-employee Evelyne Jarrett, in which she was found to have been unfairly dismissed by Essex Legal Services, overseen by the county council, and discriminated against on the grounds of race.
The experienced solicitor, who worked as team manager at the Chelmsford offices for two-and-a-half years, was made redundant in April 2012, and claimed her dismissal followed racial discrimination from her managers, harassment and victimisation.
Her claims were upheld in a reserved judgement delivered by the tribunal on September 19 in which Mr Thomson's credibility as a witness was called into question.
In their written decision the panel said: "Mr Thomson did make inappropriate references to Hitler, that good practices could be learnt from his management techniques. This aspect to the allegation is upheld.
"Any positive reference in the work place to Hitler has the potential to be highly offensive to any person of ethnic minority origins because of his responsibility for the murder of millions of such people and for pronouncements of belief in the superiority of people from one race over people from another, or any other.
"There was a culture of attributing inappropriate nicknames: starting with Mr Thomson as "piggy eyes" (an apparent reference to the way he looks at women), the claimant referred to as "Evil Lyn" and Ms Isaacs as "Miss Tease" which she understandably found very offensive."
Ms Jarrett, who now lives in Bedford, has called for an independent investigation into ELS, and the actions of the senior management team, but Essex County Council has so far only confirmed it is "in the process of defining what its course of action is".
Ms Jarrett added: "It has come as a relief that this is now behind me. This has taken a terrible toll on me but I was determined to expose what was going on. The treatment that was meted out to me by ELS impacted on my health very badly.
"ECC says that it does not tolerate racism so I expect that it will take action to deal with someone who the tribunal found in such a damning fashion to have racially discriminated against me."
Her solicitor Anthony Robinson added: "I have dealt with many hundreds of employment tribunal cases and much of what came out in the evidence was some of the worst examples of poor treatment, undermining and racial discrimination that I have come across.
"I too hope that ECC will live up to its published policies on equality and diversity, and take appropriate action to deal with the perpetrators and to clean up the organisation".
Compensation for Ms Jarrett, in her 50s, is set to be decided at a hearing this month. However, the county council says it is considering an appeal of the judgement.
A spokesman said: "We are aware of the reserved judgement which the Employment Tribunal has reached.
"We are shocked and disappointed by its findings and we are considering an appeal. Until that decision is taken we are not in a position to make any further comment."
