A National Trust Employee who has sued the charity and accused her boss of trying to be a 'white savior' after being invited to become a member of a diversity group, has lost her claim of racing discrimination.
Sewing influencer Abida Jenkins, who is of the Indian-Pakistan descent, caught up after receiving an invitation to become a member of the organization's inclusivity team.
The museummar worker said that her boss's request was 'inappropriate' because she was a 'person of color' who was 'chosen' because of her race.
She claimed to be 'shocked, ashamed, humiliated and highly degraded' by the invitation they compared to 'the use of a front hammer to break a vase'.
An employment tribunal heard that the colleague was 'terrified' when he discovered that he 'had upset' to Mrs. Jenkins and said that this was not his 'intention'.
After she had resigned from her role, the graduate engineering – who is said to have been 'sensitive' to 'diversity issues' – took legal action against the charity for heritage and nature conservation and claimed that she had been discriminated against.
But now her claims have been rejected in their entirety by a judge who ruled that the employee had an “unjustified sense of complaints” that her “exaggerated” evidence of “fitting with her agenda.”
The tribunal, held in Liverpool, heard that Mrs. Jenkins was starting to work at Quarry Bank Mill, a heritage site in Styal, Cheshire, in the summer of 2022 as a 'technical demonstrator'.
Mrs. Jenkins, who has a diploma in Engineering, describes himself as a 'person of color' with Indian-Pakistan heritage. She is also a YouTuber, posting sewing ideas to her 63,000 fans
The National Trust-Run Museum houses industrial factory cotton machines where visitors are shown how they work.
Mrs. Jenkins, who has a diploma in Engineering, describes himself as a 'person of color' with Indian-Pakistan heritage. She is also a YouTuber and posts sewing ideas on her 63,000-person fans.
The hearing was told that the role of volunteer and community manager Wayne Carter included launching a diversity group to consider 'the spectrum of protected characteristics with regard to volunteers, employees and visitors.
Mr Carter often walked around the mill and communicated with the staff, talked to them about their work, heard the tribunal.
At the beginning of August 2022, Mr Carter explained to Mrs. Jenkins that he set up a group that focused on 'diversity and inclusion'.
During the conversation he asked the demonstrator if she was interested in becoming a member.
Mrs. Jenkins claimed that during her employment he asked her 'repeatedly' to be part of the group.
The employee told the tribunal that she 'made it clear from the start that she was not interested' and she 'politely' refused the invitation.
The tribunal heard that Mrs. Jenkins was starting to work at Quarry Bank Mill (photo), a heritage site in Styal, Cheshire, in the summer of 2022 as a 'technical demonstrator'
It was heard that she felt that his requests were 'inappropriate' and left her 'shocked' behind – especially because they were reportedly made for visitors.
She described one incident and said: “It felt that he used a front hammer to break a vase. He spoke so hard*.
“I refused politely – he did not take 'no' for an answer, so that I just considered him another superficial person who presents himself as a 'white savior' who only chose me for his group, because I was an ethnic minority.”
She said she felt like “if I was chosen by Wayne as a person of color and no one else was asked to get to this group.”
But the proof of Mr Carter differed and he said that the reason he was probably asked more than once because “I don't believe I received a definitive yes or no answer.”
Later that month, Mrs. Jenkins told a colleague that she was 'offended' by his requests and said that she felt 'embarrassed, humiliated and degraded' by Mr Carter.
Her colleagues tried to put her 'spirit at ease' by saying that they thought that Mr Carter's group was an 'excellent idea' and that he had approached her alone as part of his 'tasks'.
Mrs. Jenkins (depicted) told a colleague that she was 'offended' by his requests and said that she felt 'embarrassed, humiliated and very degraded' by her boss
She complained to her line manager about the issue and Mr. Carter was spoken.
It was heard that he was 'terrified' to have caused upset and said: “It was not his intention and he would respect her request not to talk about it anymore.”
Mrs. Jenkins said that she was 'happy with the outcome and was not intended to take the case further'.
It was heard in February the following year, Mrs. Jenkins met her manager Clare Brown and made several criticism of the 'performance' of her colleagues.
At this point her relationship with Mrs. Brown was 'demolished'.
The relationship 'difficulties' between Mrs. Jenkins and Mrs. Brown 'came to a peak on April' when they argued during a meeting about problems with the machines on the site.
Mrs. Brown asked HR to remind Mrs. Jenkins about the 'assignment of her role', because it became clear that Mrs. Jenkins was convinced because she had a technical degree that she had to move forward quickly '.
Mrs. Jenkins, who was accused of using a 'patronizing tone' when he spoke with bosses, received an oral warning in June for the use of equipment in the museum without supervision.
In the light of this, she submitted a formal complaint and then resigned.
The employee took the confidence to the tribunal and made countless claims of race, gender and age discrimination.
Mrs Jenkins 'claims were completely rejected by a judge who ruled that the employee had an' unjustified feeling of complaints 'that her' exaggerated 'saw her evidence to' fit her agenda '(shown: Mrs. Jenkins' Old Workplace at National Trust's Quarry Bank Mill site)
But they were rejected employment judge Dawn Shotter who said: 'The tribunal was the position [Mrs Jenkins] Had an unjustified sense of complaints, the imagination of minds and conspiracies if there were none. '
She said about the claim of the diversity group: 'The tribunal concluded that [Mrs Jenkins] has exaggerated its evidence with regard to invited to participate in the diversity group.
'It discovered that she was not put under pressure by Wayne Carter to become a member, and his memory of what happened has been adversely affected by the passage of time and the lack of details in [her] allegations.
'Found the tribunal [Mrs Jenkins] Was not selected to become a member of the diversity group based on color.
'[She] Had not made it clear from the start that she was not interested in being part of the diversity group.
Had [Mrs Jenkins] The requests from Wayne Carter were really inappropriate, especially because he asked her for visitors on the Molenvloer for visitors, she would have collected a complaint at that time or shortly thereafter.
'The incident did not take place as claimed by [Mrs Jenkins]. '
The panel discovered that Mrs. Jenkins was for her own account, “sensitive to diversity problems.”
MailOnline approached the National Trust and Mrs. Jenkins for comment.
