Calling someone a ‘Karen’ is ‘borderline racist, sexist and ageist’, tribunal says

Labelling someone a ‘Karen’ is ‘borderline racist, sexist and ageist’, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Charity worker Sylvia Constance claimed she had been unfairly dismissed and subject to racial and ageist discrimination by her employer Harpenden Mencap, an organisation which supports adults with learning disabilities.

Ms Constance, 75, was dismissed by Mencap in June 2023, following complaints from colleagues of bullying and intimidation as well as for abusing a resident in her care.

However, a letter submitted by the support worker’s representative, Christine Yates, raised eyebrows by referring to the organisation’s management as acting like ‘stereotypical Karens’.

In a complaint about her client’s treatment she wrote: ‘The Respondents have acted like the stereotypical ‘Karen’ having weaponised their privilege and more powerful position against the Complainant, making up and suspending the Complainant for numerous fictitious infringements, and deflecting from their personal misconduct.’

She continued: ‘As egregiously, they encouraged residents under their care to do same.

‘There is also something very sordid about the way in which white, female management have facilitated racism by colluding with white, male residents to give a misogynistic, racist view of the black complainant.’

Employment judge George Alliott described Ms Yates’ language in the communication as ‘trenchant’.

He labelled the term ‘Karen’, typically targeted at middle-aged women, as a ‘pejorative and borderline racist, sexist and ageist term’.

But the tribunal dismissed a claim by Ms Constance that her being told by her line manager she had her ‘blinkers on’ amounted to abuse or racism.

Ms Constance also claimed that her line manager, Claire Wilson, had approached her ‘like a lunatic’ when she came down two flights of stairs tell her a phone call she was taking outside was too loud.

Dismissing all of her claims, Mr Alliot concluded that Ms Constance’s treatment by her bosses including her dismissal was ‘legitimate’ and ‘did not constitute a targeted racist campaign against her’.

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