Huawei Cleared Of Racial Discrimination

Huawei has successfully defended itself against claims made by a former employee that he was made redundant because he wasn’t Chinese.

The employment tribunal disagreed with customer support engineer Judeson Peter and sided with the Chinese telecoms manufacturer who declared themselves satisfied with the outcome.

Vindicated

“Huawei is very pleased with the Employment Tribunal’s positive verdict as it confirms that all allegations made by Judeson Peter were unjust and based upon factually incorrect information,” a statement read.

“The tribunal has upheld that Judeson Peter was not unfairly dismissed and that Huawei was found to have followed a fair and legal process.  Huawei as a reputable employer would not tolerate any form of discrimination in the workplace and this has been validated by the tribunal’s review of the case.”

“Huawei is a responsible and fair employer and we are committed to the equal treatment of all our employees, providing the same career opportunities to all our employees globally,” it continued.

Peter had alleged unfair dismissal, breach of contract and discrimination on the grounds of age and race after he was made redundant from his £48,000 a year post in May 2009.

Peter noted the increase in expat employees during his tenure and claimed that an email from the company’s HR department stated that Chinese employees were exempt from redundancy.

No preference to Chinese workers

However Huawei refuted these claims, explaining that Chinese expat workers were employed by the holding company in China and did not work for the UK based company, meaning that they were subject to a different process.

It also said that a higher percentage of Chinese workers than British were made redundant, showing that in no way did Huawei prioritise Chinese employees.

Huawei has recently been expanding its operations in the UK following a failure to make significant inroads in the US. Earlier this year it announced it had landed a major contract to enhance the 2G network of the UK’s largest mobile phone operator Everything Everywhere and also pledged to invest £50m on transmitters that would allow Londoners to receive signal on the tube.

“We are committed to expanding our business both in the UK and across Europe. Currently 75% of our 650 UK workforce is recruited locally and we will continue with growth plan to attract new talent to the company,” said Huawei.