Muslim deemed a security risk by nuclear bosses wins payout

I fear that the authorities are concerned that the outrage expressed when that young security guard at the Manchester arena was too frightened of being accused of racism to call out the suspicious suicide bomber (particularly as his Muslim colleague couldn’t see any problem) needs repressing and shoving back in its box. These engineers reported their concerns about a Muslim colleague and their bosses took those concerns to Prevent. Which is exactly what we are told to do!!!

From the Times and the Daily Mail

A Muslim engineer at a supply plant for nuclear reactors has been awarded £3,500 after workmates alleged that he said British troops “deserved to die”.

Police questioned Mo Master after colleagues reported that they suspected him of holding “extremist Islamic views”, an employment tribunal was told in a claim against Springfields Fuels.

Workers at the site, near Preston, Lancashire, which is owned by the US company Westinghouse, were concerned that Master had “become more religious” and “vocal about Allah”, and were alarmed because there was access to material that could be used to make a “dirty bomb”.

The hearing in Manchester was told Mr Master had been employed in the workshop of Springfield Fuels in Preston, Lancashire, which produces fuel for nuclear power plants. But in 2018 his manager Tim Berry reported him as a potential security risk after staff reported him becoming more extreme in his views.

Mr Berry told the tribunal: ‘Mo had changed. They [other colleagues] said that recently he had become a lot more outspoken, that he would say British troops in the Middle East deserved to die. He would be quite vocal about Allah whereas before Allah was rarely mentioned, and he was prepared to voice opinions whereas before he would be quite quiet about things.’

Simon Johnson, head of security, filed a report about Mr Master to the the Office for Nuclear Regulation in January 2018 which in turn contacted Prevent, the anti-terrorism Government agency. Mr Johnson said: ‘Mr Berry told me he was concerned by Mr Master’s behaviour….’ 

Mr Master, who was not told about the report, took voluntary redundancy in February 2018, taking a payment of £70,000. He was visited by police at his home around three months later.

The tribunal heard: ‘Mr Master was visited on one occasion by Prevent. Police officers attended his house in plain clothes… His father and wife were at home and he was required to explain [the visit] to his close family who the visitors were.’

Yesterday it emerged that he had won damages after the tribunal agreed that he had been the victim of a “kneejerk” reaction. It found Mr Master never made a comment about British troops and that being reported to counter terrorism police amounted to religious discrimination. Judge Leach said reporting Mr Master was ‘little more than a kneejerk reaction to being presented with unsubstantiated allegation about an employee making an extremist comment and displaying behaviour of greater religious observance . . . Mr Master had become more religious. He displayed more openly his observance of Islam.’

Springfield Fuels – part of the Westinghouse group – was ordered to pay Mr Master £3,500 compensation for religious discrimination. But he was ordered to pay his former employers £7,622 in costs after making a series of other claims which were all dismissed by the tribunal.

He obviously smelled compo. He is now out of pocket, but employers will still be warned off taking colleague’s concerns seriously, and colleagues will be warning off from expressing concerns. Until the next bomb. Which  in this case could have been particuarly nasty.