A KIDDERMINSTER electronics engineer who runs a pizza shop in the town at night, has lost compensation claims for race and religious discrimination and constructive unfair dismissal after complaining he was sent racist messages.

Keenan Sahingoz who is Turkish and a Muslim, alleged at Birmingham Employment Tribunal that the racist text messages were sent by a boss while employed at XTA Electronics Ltd, Worcester Road, in Stourport.

He said he found the remarks offensive. One text was about black people up a tree. He also complained he had been overlooked for promotion.

Mr Sahingoz was seeking tribunal approval at a preliminary hearing to go ahead with his compensation claims for race and religious discrimination and for constructive unfair dismissal at a full tribunal hearing after resigning from the firm.

The respondents successfully applied to have the compensation claims struck out after saying Mr Sahingoz had little or no prospects of winning his case.

The tribunal was told by the respondents that none of the messages were offensive and nearly all were jokes.

“The messages were sent to other employees and not intended against the claimant, “ said a legal representative for the firm who did not want her name published.

She told Mr Sahingoz: “You were not singled out."

She also alleged Mr Sahingoz had failed to respond to the firm and tribunal over documents prepared for the hearing.

She further accused Mr Sahingoz of having a “personal issue” with his boss after breaching company rules by using a mobile phone on the shop floor during work hours.

Mr Sahingoz said his boss had been too far away to decide whether or not he was actually using the mobile phone.

Mr Sahingoz was said to have been off work suffering from stress at one stage and the tribunal was told that it could have been because “he was burning the candle at both ends.”

This was because Mr Sahingoz ran the Milan Pizza shop in Comberton Hill, Kidderminster, after his day time work finished at Stourport, it was said.

Tribunal judge Mr Glyn Lloyd told Mr Sahingoz that he had not complied with the respondent over tribunal documents and that his compensation claims had little or no prospects of succeeding.

As a result his claims were struck out.