A restaurant worker and his husband who were bullied for months because of their sexual orientation, have been awarded more than £120,000 by a Tribunal.

The South London Tribunal determined that Mr Jeurninck - who worked as a waiter - and Mr Scatena - who was the Manager and a shareholder at Piatto restaurant -  were victims of direct discrimination and harassment.

The Tribunal was told that Vincenzo Cugno Garrano and Mr Scatena opened the restaurant together, which began trading in January 2018 on Battersea Park Road. Mr Scatena invested 'all of his personal money' as well as a bank loan and a loan from his husband's parents, making him a 30 per cent shareholder and one of four Directors in the restaurant.

In January 2018, Piatta recruited Mr Jeurninck to work in the restaurant as a waiter, where he remained until his resignation on 18th December 2018 - claiming that he had been on the receiving end of homophobic name calling between June and September 2018 and that he had not been paid any wages since March 2018.

On 25th April 2019, Mr Scatena also resigned, saying he'd been 'bullied for months on end'.

The Tribunal heard that Mr Jeurninck constantly received threatening comments about his sexual orientation and was frequently harassed, mainly by  Vincenzo Cugno Garrano, who carried on even after he stated that he had problems with his heart and was receiving medical care.

A waitress and colleague of Mr Jeurninck’s also gave evidence that the Tribunal accepted, noting that  Vincenzo Cugno Garrano held conversations exclusively in Italian so that Mr Jeurninck could not understand what was being said and constantly referred to him using homophobic 'slurs'.

Despite his shares as one of the four Directors, the panel heard that Mr Scatena never received a dividend payment - was accused of being 'stupid and lazy' and of stealing money from the till - which the Tribunal found there was no proof of.

In his resignation letter, Mr Scatena stated:

“I cannot be part of a Company where I’ve been bullied for months on end and decisions are taken actively and consciously in order to damage and undermine my health. This situation has been created by you solely is then used to take decisions behind my back and without my consent. This situation is also being used and abused by the other shareholders to waste resources without my consent and without essential payments towards me.”

The Tribunal said:

“This letter quite clearly shows that the matter had become intolerable for Mr Scatena and he resigned as a consequence.”

The Tribunal ruled there was “more than enough evidence” to suggest the Director's actions were motivated by homophobia and that “it would be perverse to find otherwise”. It found that Mr Jeurninck and Mr Scatena experienced inappropriate behaviour because of their sexual orientation, which had the “purpose of violating their dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them”.

The Tribunal found that there was “a sustained campaign that was motivated by homophobic behaviour to force him out of the business. All of the examples of unfavourable treatment for his direct discrimination claim and the unwanted conduct for his harassment claim form part of that campaign.”

They continued:

“There are two reasons why Piatta were trying to force him out. Either it was because they did not like him or it was because he was a gay man. We have seen more than enough evidence to support the latter in terms of offensive and sustained homophobic behaviour. It would be perverse to find otherwise.”

Given the findings, Mr Jeurninck was awarded £41,732.30 which includes £28,000 for injury to feelings caused by discrimination and Mr Scatena was awarded £83,102.66 - with £36,000 for injury to feelings.