After a colleague ‘made fun of his height,’ an Amazon security guard filed a lawsuit

• An Amazon security guard filed a harassment lawsuit.
• He claimed that he was being ‘ridiculed’ for his height.
• Christian Ononye claims that a coworker compared him to the notably short Gary Coleman.

After claiming that he was being ‘ridiculed’ for his height, an Amazon security guard filed a harassment lawsuit.

Christian Ononye claims that a coworker compared him to the notably short Gary Coleman by posting a photo of the 1980s child star to the office wall.

However, the complaint was dismissed after a tribunal determined that the photograph in question could not have been used to mock Mr. Coleman’s height because it only showed his head and shoulders.

Mr. Coleman was most known for portraying Arnold Jackson in the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes, and for his catchphrase, ‘Whatcha talkin bout Willis?’

Read more: Bolsonaro blamed as UN denounces Amazon murders

Between 1978 and 1986, the popular drama about two African-American boys who are taken in by a wealthy white man aired for eight seasons and 189 episodes.

The actor had a kidney ailment called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, which is an autoimmune disease that affects the kidneys. As a result, at the age of 4ft 8in, he stopped growing.

He died in 2010 at the age of 42 after suffering a head injury as a consequence of a fall.

Mr. Ononye told the court that a colleague agency worker at the site had ‘ridiculed’ him by ‘pinning up a photo of a person of short stature.’

Mr. Ononye also claimed that a coworker had racially assaulted him over the radio. He claimed his coworker said, “Christian, speak to me in English,” but the tribunal concluded that none of the other workers heard it.

The worker reported the event to site security manager Richard Unitt, who had the photograph removed, despite the fact that Mr. Unitt did not know who printed or hung the photograph because there was no CCTV surveillance in the area, according to the tribunal.

Read more: Amazon’s India Business Chief Explains Why He Terminated IPL

Mr. Unitt regularly chastised Mr. Ononye for his poor timekeeping, which he said was caused by a defective car battery, and searched him eight times after suspecting him of stealing from the company.

Mr. Ononye was fired following a disciplinary meeting after refusing to empty his pockets on one occasion, and he sued his employers for race discrimination, harassment, and unfair dismissal.

The panel, however, eventually dismissed all of his allegations.

‘[Mr Ononye] took offence at this, believing he was being made the target of ridicule because of [his] height,’ Judge Robin Postle said of the Gary Coleman claim. Mr. Coleman appeared to be a short man.

Read more: Amazon: Drone delivery effort is finally off the ground

‘Mr. Coleman’s stature is not lessened in any way in this photograph.’

The judge also concluded that the corporation was within its rights to consider his refusal to be searched as serious misconduct, which led to his eventual dismissal.