Employees of litter enforcement contractor Kingdom had to carry out “racist instructions” or risk losing their jobs, an Employment Tribunal has heard. Former employee Gary Forrester explained how staff were made to target ethnic minorities with fixed penalty notices as they were less likely to challenge them. He said that on one occasion Waltham Forest was “flooded” with officers as Kingdom had not enforced enough penalties there to maintain the contract.

He told East London Employment Tribunal:

“We were told ‘we can’t lose this contract, we need as many as possible, I don’t care how we get them as long as we get them’. They wanted people who wouldn’t contend their tickets, mainly those from ethnic minorities and disabled people.”

Mr Forrester, who worked for Kingdom from February 2020 until November 2020, disclosed the alleged activity and was, he claims, dismissed as a result. He said:

“I had no choice but to comply with the racist instructions, we were told to get the tickets. Everybody has a right to say no, but I would have lost my job during a pandemic.”

A witness statement by a fellow sacked employee said:

“We were specifically ordered to target disabled groups and ethnic minority groups and even people who were attending funerals and were grieving for their loved ones. For example, we were told to target ‘more blacks’ and ‘more Asians’ in general when issuing tickets, as they would not understand UK law and would be less likely to appeal any fine issued to them by us.”

He said staff were set targets for the number of penalties imposed, which they had to meet to avoid losing their job. Kingdom denies ever targeting ethnic minorities, that Mr Forrester was unfairly dismissed, or that there was any link between the alleged protected disclosures and his dismissal. It added the firm has a whistleblowing procedure and investigates “robustly” and “adheres fully” to protecting people who make protected disclosures. (Anyone who raises an issue under a whistleblowing procedure is provided with protection from unfair treatment and recriminations as long as the disclosure is made in the public interest. This means the outcome of the wrongdoing must impact the public.) The Tribunal continues and will resume on 10 February.