Heath is working as an apprentice mechanic for Not Dodgy Mechanics (NDM). This was especially convenient for Heath as he lives 2 houses down from NDM. The Manager at NDM, Fred Spofforth, has a reputation of employing only British employees as it reminds him of the 'Great British Empire'. Fred employs several Scottish and Irish employees in order to assert his 'superiority'. 'You're all a bunch of limey potato eaters' and 'we should do to Nicola Sturgeon (First Minister of Scotland) what we did to William Wallace (he was a Scotsman who was disembowelled by the English) are amongst some of the daily slurs against Heath and other employees. Apparently, Fred was in favour of Brexit and whilst always feeling distrust towards the Scottish and Irish, Fred now is openly hostile to Scotland/ Ireland after they voted remain in the European Union. Heath has thus far had an exemplary record as an apprentice mechanic and has received positive annual performance reports throughout his apprenticeship. Heath injured his shoulder playing cricket and so Heath requires assistance with any heavily lifting, but other staff are prepared to assist, and Heath is otherwise a highly skilled apprentice.

One day, Fred has some business matters to attend to away from the garage and so he and his wife, Jill, who manages the front office and administration, were out all day. Heath is placed at the front desk to interact with customers and signing people in to have their car serviced. Heath was embracing his new responsibilities when Edward, a regular, entered the shop. Upon hearing Heath's thick Scottish accent, Edward exclaims, 'I'm not letting a traitorous Scotsman work on my car'. Heath responds by saying 'suit yourself' and walks to the back of the office area to get a coffee.

The following day, around lunchtime, Heath comes in on a day off to check when he is working next. Fred comes in screaming, 'I knew I couldn't trust an idiot Scotsman like you, you can't even go one day without offending my best customer.' Heath tried to explain that he had been polite throughout his interactions with Edward, but Fred would not let Heath speak and continued to berate him. Heath gives up and walks out of the garage stating, 'I'm not putting up with this, I'm not even working today'. Fred follows Heath home, continuing to insult and berate him further, but Heath just walks away ignoring Fred. Now both of the men are standing on Heath's front lawn, when Fred states, 'You Scotsman are only good for 3 things, drinking, fighting, and manual labour' and then starts calling out to some people walking past 'hey look at this filthy drunk Scotsman, you should throw rocks at him'. At this point, Heath has had enough and tells Fred 'If you don't get off my lawn, I'll give you a Glasgow Kiss (spoiler alert: it's a headbutt)'. In a firm tone, Heath also states 'I'm glad we voted against Brexit'

When Heath arrives at work the following day, he is advised that his employment with NDM has been terminated and that Fred does not tolerate threats of violence against himself or other employees. He also reminds Heath how others need to help him with lifting and Fred is sick of having to constantly keep an eye on Heath. Heath is so angry that he requires counselling sometime after the incident. Heath remains unemployed, despite his best efforts to secure a job. Heath engages a lawyer who names Patrick, an Irish employee, who was also subject to abuse, as a witness in Heath's case. Fred threatens Patrick, that he will be fired if he participates in any way in the court action. The owner of NDM, Lord Buckethead, is quite irate at the proceedings. He is a 'hands off' owner but left a detailed policy in place on how to handle employee discipline matters. On face value, the policy was sound, requiring 2 written warnings before employment could be terminated, a zero-tolerance policy on racism, sexism, and homophobia that applied to all levels of the business, and he appointed Fred as the person who would mediate any disputes. This policy was handed to all employees at the start of their employment, but no further training, updating, or reminders of this policy had been done in over 10 years. Lord Buckethead never inquired about these matters and largely left this aspect of management to Fred, as he trusted Fred to enforce the policy.

Advise Heath and Patrick on what actions they may take against NDM or Fred. (25 Marks)