Judge rules man fired for making ‘Michael Jackson’ and ‘monkey’ noises at Black co-worker unfairly terminated

An employment judge said the noises were “juvenile” but not racist, ruling Co-op mishandled the case and misrepresented the worker’s admissions.

One worker in Manchester, UK, is singing “Beat It”—the case that is. After a nearly two-year battle over alleged workplace harassment leading to termination of employment, Lucasz Zawadzki is cashing a check for over $14,000 after an employment tribunal determined that he had been unfairly dismissed. 

According to Newsweek, Zawadzki, who had been employed at Co-op—a British wholesale company for various retail businesses—was fired in March 2024 after a Black employee, identified only as SM, accused him in December 2023 of making “Michael Jackson” noises (think “tee-hee”) and “monkey noises” at him for as long as two years. SM alleged that the noises were made because he was Black. 

That same December Zawadzki was suspended. The company’s reason for the suspension was their policy against bullying and harassment. After interviewing other employees and his colleagues, several people claimed to have heard Zawadzki making noises but didn’t assume it was racism, but more sexual in nature. One co-worker assumed the target of his “noises” was a female worker, not SM. 

During his disciplinary hearing in February 2024, Zawadzki denied making any “Michael Jackson” noises or “monkey” noises at SM, though he did admit to what he described as “embarrassing and juvenile” behavior, though said he never intended to bully or harm anybody. On March 7, 2024, Zawadzki was informed of his termination via letter, though the letter claimed that he admitted to making “Michael Jackson noises” and “monkey” noises, something he never admitted to. The company’s reasoning for the firing was listed as “gross misconduct, specifically for admitted breach of the bullying, harassment, and discrimination policy, making inappropriate comments/noises towards a colleague causing hurt and distress.”

A tribunal was empaneled and both the company and Zawadzki shared their sides of the story. The company claimed that they have a zero-tolerance policy for workplace harassment and that Zawadzki’s actions were detrimental to SM. However, an employment judge claimed that Zawadzki’s actions amounted to little more than a nuisance to SM, saying in her ruling that “In essence, the misconduct of the claimant was inappropriate and juvenile conduct in the workplace. There was no satisfactory evidence before the dismissing officer that that particular admitted conduct was offensive to SM or caused him distress.”

In their findings, though, the tribunal laid out a much more complete accounting of why Zawadzki would ultimately be awarded compensation and deemed to have been unfairly fired: 1) the dismissing officer did not determine that Zawadzki’s conduct was racist or targeted; 2) the dismissal letter inaccurately stated that he admitted to making “Michael Jackson” or “monkey” noises; 3) Zawadzki had not been provided with investigation documents before his hearing; 3) he had never been given the Co-op’s bullying and harassment policy, nor trained on its contents; 5) he had no prior disciplinary record.

In a nutshell, the tribunal ruled that not only did SM, the Black employee NOT face anything that rose to the level of harassment or bullying for racial reasons, but also despite the company’s zero-tolerance policy, the company made several errors along the way that effectively turned Zawadzki into the victim of aggressive action on the part of Co-op. He was awarded over $14,000, which oddly represented half of what he asked for; the tribunal ALSO claimed that his behavior was “culpable and blameworthy,” essentially that he might have offended or humiliated colleagues…but none of it was racist. 

Hopefully, Zawadzki looks at the man in the mirror before acting in a similar fashion at his next job.