An Indian radio presenter who claimed she was replaced because of her accent has lost her claim for race discrimination.

Ms Soma Sarkar, who worked as a presenter on a show broadcasting music says that she was never given any form of contract. She worked on a daily show with Lyca Radio in London, broadcasting for British Asians.

Earning £12.50 an hour, Ms Sarkar would fill in her time sheet as a freelance employer. She received her earnings without tax and national insurance deductions.

Almost two years after she had started to work for Lyca Radio the company appointed a new Chief Executive, Mr Rajinder Baddhan. He joined the company in January 2021.

After listening to Ms Sarkar’s broadcasting, he decided that it sounded ‘too dreary.’

The tribunal heard that Mr Baddham decided that Lyca needed a change, and he went ahead to develop a repositioning strategy for the station. This repositioning included renaming one of the sister stations, Lyca Gold, to play a more retro selection of music.

With this in mind, he wanted new presenters on Lyca Radio, where Ms Sarkar worked. Ideally he wanted them to have more energy and a higher public profile than those who were there when he joined the company.

Ms Sarkar was told in January 2021, along with three other presenters, that they had lost their jobs and would not be presenting any further shows because of the shake-up. Ms Sarkar told the tribunal that she had been replaced by someone with an English accent.

Shortly after she met with the HR team at Lyca, where her comment was treated as a grievance. The team responded to her that her contract had not been terminated but she had been removed from her slot as there was a ‘review of operations taking place at the station.’

The tribunal heard that Lyca had treated other presenters in the same way and they rejected what they felt were accusations of race and religious belief discrimination. 

Ms Sarkar appealed the decision, telling the tribunal that she had always maintained that her cessation was not based strictly on performance. As she understood it, the presenter who replaced her had previously done radio shows either very late at night or late at the weekends and not on prime evenings as she had done.

She claimed that the new presenter was related to the CEO in some way, and accused him of nepotism. Ms Sarkar stated that it could be construed as a ‘clear case of discrimination’ on the grounds of ‘taking care of one’s own and known.’

The tribunal attempted to established whether Ms Sarkar was a freelancer or an employee. They found no evidence  of the company controlling her, and no written contract. There were no documents which could show that there were any working agreements.

Because of this lack of evidence the tribunal had no jurisdiction to further consider the claims as they placed her as a freelancer. 

Ms Sarkar lost her claim of unfair dismissal, along with her claims of failure to pay notice and holiday pay, as well as direct and indirect race discrimination.

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