Catholic worker at Saudi embassy in Mayfair wins religious harassment case over ‘insulting and derogatory comments’ about her beliefs throughout her eight years there

A Catholic Saudi Arabian embassy employee has won a religious harassment case after claiming she was the victim of “insulting and derogatory comments” about her beliefs.

Antoinette Constantine is eligible for compensation after successfully filing a lawsuit over the way she was treated while working at the Diplomatic Mission’s Cultural Office.

She claimed at an employment tribunal that not only was she abused during the eight years she was there, but she was ‘denied work and dismissed’ because of her faith.

In an attempt to dismiss her claims, the embassy had tried to argue that her job was an ‘exercise of sovereign authority’ and therefore not covered by British employment law.

However, Ms Constantine was given the green light to file a lawsuit when a judge ruled that her role at the Mayfair-based embassy consisted of “support and support” administrative functions and “non-governmental” functions.

She will now receive compensation after a judge ruled that her complaints of religious harassment were ‘substantiated’.

A woman who worked at the Saudi Arabian embassy in London for eight years has won a religious harassment case at an employment tribunal in central London

Antoinette Constantine was employed by the embassy to do administrative work such as entering invoices and reports from British universities on Saudi students in Britain into a computerized system (student photo shown by model)

The tribunal in central London heard that from January 2010 she worked as a mailroom clerk in the Administrative Affairs department as part of the embassy’s Cultural Office.

In June 2016, she transferred to the Cultural Affairs department to work as a secretary.

However, in September 2017, Ms. Constantine returned to the administrative department as a mailroom clerk and worked there until her departure in January 2018.

‘[Ms Constantine]a Catholic Christian, alleges that throughout her employment she faced offensive and derogatory comments about her Christian beliefs and was denied employment and dismissed because of her Christian beliefs,” the hearing was told.

The Royal Embassy claimed that although Constantine was a member of the administrative staff, her functions were ‘sufficiently close to the governmental functions of the mission’ that her work meant the mission had state immunity.

Employment Judge Jillian Brown disagreed, ruling that the administrative assistant did have the right to file a lawsuit due to the nature of her job.

“Based on my factual findings, all of them [her] The tasks were really supportive and supportive,” he said.

‘[Her] His role as mailroom clerk involved entering invoices and reports from British universities on Saudi students in Britain into a computerized system.”

She concluded it was a “data entry job,” adding, “I found that.” [Ms Constantine] did not open the mail that arrived in the mailroom.

‘This was done by a colleague, who read and categorized the correspondence.

‘[Ms Constantine] only relevant university invoices or reports were passed on to be entered into the system.

‘This was a purely administrative function and there was no government decision-making involved.’

Assessing her secretarial role, she added: ‘This included low-level non-governmental functions such as booking rooms, inviting people to meetings and instructing caterers.

‘[She] did not attend meetings with officials or take notes.

‘She was not aware of the details of the people attending meetings, nor of the content of the meetings.

‘It is logical that in this role she has had to deal with children of government officials or members of the royal family.

‘However, her role was purely administrative: she arranged the studies and payment to universities.

‘[Ms Constantine]’s role during her employment was supportive and supportive.

‘It wasn’t from the government.

“She did not support the government functions of the mission, but its administrative functions.

“Her work was not an exercise of sovereign authority.”

Although her claim of harassment was accepted by the tribunal, a separate claim of religious discrimination was rejected.

The tribunal heard that ‘directions regarding reinstatement’ for Ms Constantine would be sent separately to the parties.