Mercedes has confirmed it fired four members of its Formula 1 team staff at the beginning of last month for breaches of its diversity and equality policy.
A statement issued to RaceFans noted: “Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd confirms that four individuals were dismissed from the company on 2 August 2019.“These dismissals followed an internal investigation that confirmed breaches of our Diversity and Equality Policy. We condemn this behaviour in the strongest terms and acted immediately upon the complaint.
“We value the diversity of our employees and it is a source of strength for our team. Our working environment is based on appreciation and mutual respect.”
The Sun newspaper claimed yesterday four Mercedes employees had bullied and used racist language against a Muslim co-worker.
In march this year Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton spoke out against racism following the abuse director at English soccer players in Montenegro.
“It’s just crazy to think that in this time in the world it’s still very, very prominent,” said Hamilton. “It’s really there. All around the world racism is still a real issue. Which is sad to see.”
“It doesn’t seem like it’s going to be [changing] much over the next years. It’s great to see people standing by people and support. But I don’t think it’s something that’s going to particularly change for a long time.”
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Brolloks (@brolloks)
28th September 2019, 17:21
May they DNF with both cars at every single event for the rest of their tenure in F1.
manoli moriaty
29th September 2019, 10:32
Not a fan of diversity then, are you Brolloks?
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
29th September 2019, 20:38
I’m not. Diversity for the sake of it isn’t fair to anyone. A meritocracy is equality of opportunity, the best person gets the job. Hiring someone for their color or religion or whatever, is an insult.
David BR (@david-br)
28th September 2019, 18:39
Really depressing. IT staff apparently. The Guardian reports (the Sun):
Joseph (@bigjoe)
28th September 2019, 23:26
@david-br
So they were taking the mickey out of his imaginary friend. That’s just bullying if it’s happened too much, not racist.
Like Morgan Freeman said, stop talking about race if you want to help solve it.
Also it’s only in the last 5 years I’ve started seeing prayer rooms in western European offices. What’s going on.
manoli moriaty
29th September 2019, 10:34
Joseph, if you worry about prayer rooms in Wester Europe now, consider why have there been Christian churches all around the world since the 1500’s
Moi
29th September 2019, 11:07
A wholly incorrect comparison. There are synagogues, mosques and other assorted places of worship around the world as well.
A better comparison would be to ask how many christian chapels you see in office buildings in the middle east?
manoli moriaty
29th September 2019, 11:12
Using the Middle East as a broad point of reference for diversity and inclusion only serves to reflect your own standards.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
29th September 2019, 20:39
Yes but those churches aren’t in offices and Christianity is compatible with western civilization and separation of church and state, Islam is not.
David BR (@david-br)
29th September 2019, 16:12
@bigjoe Bullying that focuses on a colleague’s race, ethnicity or religion: that’s discriminatory and racism. Self-evidently. As the court found too.
Prayer rooms are there so people can observe their religion in peace and tranquility. I’m not religious, at all, but it makes me feel good too that others can feel good and at peace with their god/s. Seriously, I can’t see why this is a negative, it’s a big positive.
DAllein (@)
28th September 2019, 18:49
With Trump, Johnson and rise of Ultra-right across the Globe – what else did anyone expect? Friendship and eternal piece?!
Really, until the world abolishes racial hatred and glorification of hatred (or burns down trying… which is actually way more likely), the battle for equality and acceptance will never end.
Sloppy Shades (@sloppysmusic)
28th September 2019, 18:58
Kinda true. You can have all the fair and equal rules in the world but some people will always be (insert derogatory word of choice here)s . Especially when world leaders can be that way all the time and get away with it.
AlexS
28th September 2019, 19:41
Typical Marxist try of conflating different things and different intensity.
In same vein then i guess i can say you are perfectly okay with Islamism discrimination of Women.
Let’s ask Mercedes and British universities if they have a policy of not arrassing non-Marxist thinking…?
AlexS
28th September 2019, 19:47
Btw i don’t have anything against the firing of those guys if they were harassing the other person.
But that has nothing to do with Orwellian “breach of equality policy” that goes with Mercedes.
“breach of equality policy” is “Newspeak” for only one side to be able to do the harassing.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
29th September 2019, 3:45
Agree 100%!
frood19 (@frood19)
29th September 2019, 0:19
Read some Marx and come back to us.
I say chapeau Mercedes for acting on this kind of thing. It’s way too easy for firms to talk a good game when it comes to this kind of thing, but then be weak on enacting policy. It feels like the right people got censured here and merc, as an organisation, is improved both from within and reputation-wise.
Justin Opinion
29th September 2019, 2:48
My education is in philosophy, specifically Aristotle and Heidegger. I think that every F1 fan who has read Marx would conclude there would be no F1 under Marxism. Therefore, I think you’re bluffing with your challenge, “Read some Marx and come back to us.”
I find it cute and amusing.
David BR (@david-br)
29th September 2019, 16:17
I can’t imagine much F1 under Aristotle or Heidegger either! And imagine Zeno F1 – Seb Vettel would never ever get to cross the line, not just in Socchi…
Aapje (@aapje)
28th September 2019, 20:29
I constantly see racism and sexism against white men in the papers, but that apparently is no problem. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
29th September 2019, 3:46
Yes, agreed. Issue is that is the demographic least likely to vote left so we’re the enemy.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
28th September 2019, 23:20
@dallein
you need reporting for this propaganda.
When it suits you, you laugh at the ‘pathetic’ numbers of the ‘far-right’ marches. Yet in another argument you put the fear up people by claiming they are ‘on the rise’. Which is it?
The far-left blocking highways and burning cars are the more frightening.
anon
29th September 2019, 8:59
@bigjoe, the latest statistics on terrorist threats within the US have shown that the extreme right is the largest domestic terrorist threat within the US by a substantial margin – around 77% of terrorist plots that they have foiled have been planned by the extreme right.
Across Europe, whilst the proportion is lower, terrorist activity by the extreme right is currently the fastest growing terrorist threat across Europe – the number of attempted attacks has been rising by about 20% a year over the past couple of years. Contrary to your assertions, the number of foiled attempted terrorist attacks show that the extreme right is a significantly greater threat than the extreme left in most nations and much more likely to carry out acts of violence.
@jblank, whilst you throw around accusations of “leftist anti-semites”, many Jewish organisations have reported that anti-Semitic behaviour is a problem that is more frequently associated with the political right wing – in places like the UK, for example, anti-Semitism is around three times more likely to occur amongst those who identify as being on the right wing rather than left wing. In a number of Western nations, the most aggressively marketed and dangerous anti-Semitic theories are coming from the political right (the “white replacement” narrative, which claims that wealthy Jews are using Muslim migrants to replace white males in Europe), and the more aggressive anti-Semitic measures have tended to come from right wing nationalistic parties (such as Fidesz forcibly shutting down Jewish cultural centres in Hungary).
Dave
29th September 2019, 11:18
“in places like the UK, for example, anti-Semitism is around three times more likely to occur amongst those who identify as being on the right wing rather than left wing.”
Was, not is. Sadly, Corbyn has changed that.
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/debunked-the-myths-about-jewish-disgust-with-labour-1.488574
David BR (@david-br)
29th September 2019, 16:19
@bigjoe
Reported to whom? You’re not actually living in a police state, you know!
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
29th September 2019, 3:44
Excuse me while I throw up. Abolish racial hatred? Ya gonna force your will on people that think differently? Yeah that’ll teach them. Gonna make all the leftist anti-semites follow suit? You lefties sure do love you some government force but ya don’t wanna say squat to Muslims who hate all your little special groups. Hypocrites! That’s the left.
manoli moriaty
29th September 2019, 10:37
You seem to worry too much about the abolition of racial hatred. Is it your favourite hobby, and worried that the “lefties” will take it away from you?
Moi
29th September 2019, 14:41
In every post you make, you attack the person instead of adding value to the content of the discussion.
If you actually wish to make a point, rather than just attempt to upset others, consider having something to contribute when you post. If not, you’re doing fine.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
29th September 2019, 20:41
How about you go play in traffic and not worry about how I post? Don’t like what I say? Scroll past or pound sand.
Dave
28th September 2019, 19:14
Wouldn’t have happened while von Lauda was around. The disciplinary action, that is.
Dewald Nel (@ho3n3r)
29th September 2019, 12:12
Why? Niki was one of the most principled people – both in F1 and in business – that we know.
Genuinely curious as to what you are basing this comment on.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
28th September 2019, 21:32
There’s thousands of people working for the mercedes f1 team. An incident such as this is mundane in scale.
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
28th September 2019, 22:40
Lewis certainly ticks some diversity boxes, unlike the prominently Aryan features of one V. Bottas and they are together very public representatives of the brands equal opportunities on a global platform.
If the allegations against the IT guys are valid, as a career long member of the IT crowd let me assure you that their misbehavior and failures are their own, and are not encouraged nor should be tolerated.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
28th September 2019, 23:29
@uneedafinn2win
Equal opportunities company.
Like ripping off people of all colour with their price fixing scandal. Killing people of all colour with the emissions cheating. etc etc. Mercedes are up for several violations and already done for price fixing in the truck industry.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
29th September 2019, 3:38
Islam isn’t a race, hence this isn’t racism. Dumb to bully anyone but mocking someone’s religion isn’t racism.
Dave
29th September 2019, 11:21
Why do people like you think semantic quibbles are relevant? As it happens, the semantic quibbles are just plain wrong, given how racism is defined, but even if they weren’t, your argument is basically ‘you’re using the wrong word for that despicable thing I do, so I’m not guilty’. Ludicrous.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
29th September 2019, 16:25
Words matter. Replace Islam with Catholic, is it right then? It’s not semantics, it’s about accuracy and correctly labeling the act. The left, which you seem to be a member of, is so in love with labeling everything racist, that you don’t even care whether it’s used properly or not. I never said someone wasn’t guilty, just the opposite, nor did I defend the act, so don’t lie about my position.
erix
29th September 2019, 4:46
In Indonesia, if you do something like that to any religion or race ..you definitely going to jail.
socksolid (@socksolid)
29th September 2019, 4:54
Breach of equality policy? Sounds like a clear cut case of bullying. Not sure why this is f1 news.
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
3rd October 2019, 4:52
@socksolid Seems like a case of getting ahead and setting the story, rather than by omission it appearing like it’s being swept under the rug—and in the case of RaceFans it’s the type of behind-the-scenes news it thrives on. We both read it, didn’t we?
The PR cherry on top helps too.
Lucrob
29th September 2019, 5:45
We’re no worse as a world than we’ve ever been. WWW has just put a magnifying glass on it. We know too much about what’s going on over on the other side of the globe. And if anything, it’s made the 15 minutes of fame far easier to accomplish. People need to find a purpose in their own little world by recognizing how insignificant we are, and learn to deal with it in a stoic manner.
RB13
30th September 2019, 10:22
Some of the replies in here are horrific.
@keithcollantine how many Islamaphobic posts are you going to let @bigjoe get away with? The guy is a clear cut bigot. If he isnt demaning Lewis Hamilton he’s complaining about Islam.
@bigjoe you are trash.