Remember me
A 'serial litigant' branded 'vexatious' after making more than 12 unsuccessful discrimination claims following rejected job applications has finally won a case.
Mudassar Mubin, 45, claims he is a victim of prejudice on the grounds of disability because he speaks with a stammer, as well as due to his British Pakistani background.
The father-of-five repeatedly took bosses to tribunals after failing to get managerial jobs at food manufacturers including Duerrs marmalades and the makers of Lurpak butter.
His strategy involves using networking site LinkedIn and social media to establish who the companies appointed instead, and researching their work history.
In one case an employment judge accused Mr Mubin of 'taking up time and resources of both the tribunal and of those advertising jobs'.
In another, a judge rejected his claim to be disabled as a result of his stammer, commenting on his 'articulate and fluent' verbal evidence.
A third unsuccessful case saw a judge order Mr Mubin to pay £5,000 costs after failing to be honest on his CV about being sacked from a previous job at a supermarket.
But speaking out for the first time, Mr Mubin insisted all his claims were 'justified' – adding that far from making money, his legal battles had left him more than £30,000 out of pocket.
Mudassar Mubin, 45, claims he is a victim of prejudice on the grounds of disability because he speaks with a stammer, as well as due to his British Pakistani background
He branded the 'serial litigant' label 'a slur', insisting he had almost 20 years' worth of experience in the food industry - and even accusing one employer of hiring private detectives to spy on him.
His victory comes as Labour's new Employment Rights Act will make successful tribunal claims more common.
Thanks to the law, employees will be able to claim unfair dismissal after just six months' work, rather than two years, with unlimited damages now available.
The time limit for bringing a tribunal claim will also be doubled from three months to six months.
It also comes after the Daily Mail revealed how born-again Christian Joseph Johnson, 45, had commenced legal action at least 54 times against 16 different charities, schools, local authorities and gyms without succeeding in a single discrimination claim.
Mr Mubin's latest claim followed his failure to secure an interview for the post of a £30,000-a-year quality control manager at a dairy in Stockport.
His disability case on the grounds of his stammer was again dismissed, with a judge pointing out that due to his rejection, bosses never actually heard how he spoke.
But this time his race claim was upheld after a judge branded evidence from managers that other non-white applicants were interviewed 'unreliable'.
While the level of damages he will receive has yet to be decided, he is understood to have claimed more than £100,000 – although Mr Mubin says he has asked for £40,000.
He told the Daily Mail this was the first case in which he had instructed a barrister – out of his '15 or 16' claims, one was settled but he lost all the others.
'Every job I go for, I am more qualified than the others but I'm discriminated against,' said Mr Mubin, who hasn't had a job since last November and stammered while speaking to our reporter.
'I started taking action because when I applied for a job, most of the time I heard nothing back.
'But now with the power of social media and LinkedIn, I found out who got the job and 90 per cent of the time it is someone with only one or two years of experience or who is just a graduate.
'I have 18 years of senior leadership experience and I still don't get the job.
'I had the same qualifications and expertise as other candidates – sometime better – but was still overlooked.'
In a 2023 claim against Arla Foods, Mr Mubin, who lives in Blackburn, Lancashire, alleged race and disability discrimination after missing out on a quality control manager job.
A judge rejected his complaint, saying there was no evidence the decision-maker was aware of his stammer, while the job ultimately went to a British Pakistani woman.
Criticising his 'high-handed' and 'sarcastic' tone, Jamie Anderson accused Mr Mubin of being 'evasive' in claiming he 'could not remember how many claims he had submitted'.
He also labelled his CV 'misleading' for failing to disclose that he had been sacked from a supermarket job.
'Even taking the claimant's own number, 12 is a lot of claims, taking up time and resources of both the tribunal and of those advertising jobs,' the judge commented.
Saying his claim 'had no reasonable prospect of success', the judge took the unusual step of ordering Mr Mubin to pay £5,000 towards Arla's legal bill, which ran to several times that amount.
He branded him a 'serial litigant' over his multiple claims, highlighting how firms had found themselves in his sights despite having no previous dealings with him.
'Merely advertising a job can result in litigation,' Judge Anderson said, adding that his claims 'appear to be brought with a view to achieving a commercial settlement'.
In a different case, another employment judge rejected his claim of disability discrimination, saying he 'rarely hesitated over words' while giving evidence and was at times as articulate as a solicitor involved in the case.
Mr Mubin also failed to supply medical evidence about his stammer, he added.
Claims against supermarket Morrisons, the Bury Black Pudding Company and preserves manufacturer Duerrs were all thrown out, while a case against a sandwich supplier was dismissed as 'vexatious'.
However now that he has begun hiring his own barrister, Mr Mubin says he will keep fighting.
'It is not just about the money now. It's about stopping companies discriminating against people.'
Comments (0)