When asked what the laughter was all about during a work dinner, the Payone GmbH employee Florian Risch told the only black employee attending the dinner that he was making reference to a “black man having sexual intercourse with an animal”.
The incident had a long-term effect on the victim who felt as if he was being attacked and racially harassed. The dehumanising comments, despicable and pathetic conversation in any environment, compelled a fellow colleague who heard the comments to later apologise to the black colleague for what was a deliberate attempt to humiliate him.
Who are Payone GmbH and Worldline UK?
Worldline SA is represented in the UK by the entity Worldline UK and is the parent company of Payone GmbH following the closing of a joint venture in March 2021. The company shares competitors in the European payments space with the likes of Worldpay, Adyen, Mollie, Barclaycard and Concardis. Mr Risch, who is still employed by Payone GmbH is employed within the enterprise sales department of the company. Loopline media appeals to the company to continue to retain Mr Risch but to ensure future diversity and inclusion training is rolled out across the company.
Payone’s UK’s operation can be summed up by the fact they operated in the UK without Employee Liability Insurance between 2012 and 2017, which of course was in breach of the UK legislation. Only due diligence carried out by the University of Cambridge during a failed card processing bidding process brought the Employer’s liability illegality to light.
The affected ex-employee at the dinner who wishes to remain anonymous told Loopline media that Payone did not protect him from such acts of racial harassment to the extent they did not have any training for diversity and inclusion. Even when an employee dressed up as a “blackface” character at the Christmas party, all senior management and HR in attendance remained quiet.
The former UK employee tells Loopline:
“ I was so affected by the comments of Mr Risch that I had difficulty sleeping and I suffered from mental health difficulties which continue till today. The dinner was actually Mr Risch’s belated leaving do, and in my opinion he felt empowered to racially harass me because he had already left the company to go to join Worldline SA. However, in a twist of fate Payone had later become a Worldline SA subsidiary in 2021 and with that Mr Risch was again a Payone employee. I hope incidents as blatant as these are rare but it just goes to show the type of people ethnic minorities may encounter at work.”
Even though many strides have been taken to eradicate racism in the UK workplaces, it seems like the past few years have been nothing but filled with it. In a time when cancel culture exists, why haven’t we cancelled racism yet? It’s unbelievable that in 2023 we’re still talking about the perils of racism and sexism, but we won’t stop until it’s eradicated.
That’s why it’s so important for Worldline SA to put diversity and inclusion training in place at their German subsidiary, Payone GmbH, that directly addresses and warns others that racist remarks and actions will not be tolerated.
Nearly Half of Black Employees Have Reported Racism in the UK
An article like this isn’t here to solely offer talking points or criticise Payone GmbH. It’s here to offer facts and offer some hope to junior potential victims of comments such as that of Mr Risch.
Youngsters who work hard all their junior school life, then college, then university, then to be met with entirely unwarranted commentary and attitudes as that displayed at the Payone GmbH dinner. The facts are that nearly half (41%) of Black and minority employees in the United Kingdom have experienced racism in the past five years.
These upsetting facts come straight from the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which was the largest study about racism in the workplace ever conducted in the U.K.
Sexism is running just as rampant. A well-known gender equality group called The First 100 Years, also conducted a study that found that 58% of women in the workplace have either known of or experienced sexist remarks aimed toward their gender from their male colleagues. Perhaps the saddest fact to arise from this survey was that 80% of respondents felt like it would take 80 years or more to reach gender equality in the workplace. It’s abundantly clear that something needs to be done.
So Why Does This Keep Happening?
As the growing call for diverse workspaces imploded not just throughout the U.K, but around the globe, many employers took an initiative to make social change. Examples of these initiatives include everything from holding diversity training for their employees to making recruitment records public so employees and potential applicants have more transparency, and updating staff on new anti-discriminatory policies.
I mean, that’s all fine and good…at work. But, what happens when team members get together outside of office hours? What about corporate events? Dinners? What happens when the lines are blurred between on-the-clock and off-the-clock “so-called” comradery? WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN EMPLOYEE TURNS UP IN BLACKFACE MAKE-UP?
The real problem here is that there aren’t policies like this in place to combat these issues. Sure, employees may be expected to act appropriately anytime they’re representing their company, but there’s not as much emphasis placed on this behaviour outside of work.
And as such, certain employees may feel comfortable making racist remarks about their black co-workers, or using foul, discriminatory language outside of work hours, all in the name of jest. Then, once morning comes, it seemingly all goes back to business as usual. But for those who suffer from these types of remarks, many times on a continuous basis, it isn’t just business as usual. In fact, it makes us feel unsafe and ultimately it not only creates a hostile and degrading work environment, but ends up lowering self-esteem, productivity, creativity, and overall job satisfaction.
Worse, the more visible the negative treatment becomes, the less likely we are to climb the corporate ladder or be given opportunities to achieve something greater. And thus, the never-ending loop of racism in the workplace continues.
What We Need to Do
It’s not just about communicating what happened to Human Resources anymore, because in all honesty, what is HR really doing to combat this type of aggressive behaviour? Employers don’t want to be sued, and like insurance companies, they’re only concerned with their bottom line. In this case, protecting their assets (and another word that sounds closely related). Mr Risch’s victim strongly felt that Payone GmbH fell well within that category of employer.
It’s why 44% of the minority employees surveyed by the TUC indicated that they were less likely to report racist remarks because nothing ever really changes. We’re told that an investigation into what happened will start, but how can employers really turn the tide when most of them aren’t even aware of their implicit bias? How can we make someone who doesn’t care about our chances for success, our intellect, our skills, our feelings, and our genuine experiences suddenly care that we’re being discriminated against?
The answer is simple: fight back until they have no choice but to care.
This is a strong basis for Loopline fearlessly exploring the conduct of Mr Risch and Payone GmbH, a modern company owned by Worldline SA a global listed stock market company.
We, irrespective of race or sex, are the ones who have to spearhead this charge. We’re the ones that have to initiate change. And it all starts with understanding that the issues we face in the workplace are created from the top down.
When you hear a racist or sexist remark, you have to call it out immediately. It doesn’t matter if it’s at the office, by the water cooler, or at a corporate event. If the action doesn’t stop, report it to your manager. If your manager doesn’t do anything, tell HR. If HR doesn’t do anything, go to the Vice President. And if the Vice President doesn’t do anything, go to the President, then the Board of Directors.
Call a lawyer if you have to and tell them that your employer is in direct infringement of the Equality Act 2010.
As previously mentioned, many employees don’t feel comfortable reporting racism and sexism in the workplace because they’re fearful of retaliation. But if you don’t bring attention to what’s going on, the culture will continue long after you give your leave to work for someone else.
Like all bullies, they will continue their rotten behavior for as long as they can get away with it. If you make it known that you will not tolerate these kinds of actions, particularly via legal routes, the more likely they are to stop. Because, like employers and insurance companies, people want to protect their bottom line, too. And, when their employment status and income are at stake, they’re less likely to jeopardise it.
Remember, the more light you bring to these issues, both inside and outside of work, the more pressure your employer will feel to set policies that directly address these harmful actions and
make staff aware that they will be punished, or even terminated for acting in a way that is unlawful.
That’s the only way this is going to stop. We still have a long way to go, but remaining quiet for fear of what could happen is the surefire way to guarantee that progress is not made.
LOOPLINE MEDIA
