Viewpoints Unfair Dismissal of Dad for Trying to Save His Babies | Unfair Dismissal of Dad for Trying to Save His Babies |
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5 February 2001
Fortunately for Alex, the operation was successful and the boys returned home in June. It is hoped that Alex will recover enough to be able to donate bone marrow to his twin brother, Oscar. But for Alan Chan, he was informed by his managing director in a meeting that "lasted no more than five minutes" that he was to be made redundant with immediate effect. The company claimed that there was a need to cut costs. However, Alan Chan contends that during his tenure, the company grew by over 133% and yet he was the only UK employee in his field who lost his job. Of greater concern, is his allegation that these turn of events were in part racially motivated. He cites incidents since 1998 of particular colleagues subjecting him to racial abuse in front of more junior staff. These included pretending to do martial arts in a denigrating way and shouting out remarks in a mock Chinese voice during staff presentations. The "culture of corporate bullying" and racism at Organon Teknika appears so out of hand that even non-senior staff have felt confident enough to direct racist remarks at Alan Chan. Dr Chan has started proceedings at the industrial tribunal challenging his unfair dismissal and presenting evidence of racial discrimination. In conversation with Dimsum, Alan Chan sums up his sentiments: "This is an important issue for me as I want to highlight to the Chinese (East Asian) community that institutional racism is, unfortunately, still rearing its ugly head." If you have any comments or wish to get in touch with Alan Chan, please write to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it |
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Until
May this year, Alan Chan was a business manager in Organon Teknika, a
branch of the Dutch multinational Akzo Nobel; a company supplying healthcare
products to the NHS hospitals and laboratories. Since then he has been
fired from his job for being away from work for 9 months. The reason?
He was recovering in Great Ormond Street Hospital after having had two
bone marrow transplant operations. He was not receiving the transplants
but giving them to one of his two sons. Alex and Oscar were both diagnosed
with Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome. Children with this syndrome have very weak
immune systems and are usually unlikely to reach adulthood.
