A Salvation Military employee who was sacked after saying migrants needs to be despatched again dwelling ‘on a f***ing boat’ has damaged his silence to insist he’s not racist.
Charles Markie stated he had been engaged on the homelessness frontline in Dundee for twenty years discovering lodging for the weak and people in determined want of housing.
However he revealed his job had develop into tougher in that point because of the giant variety of locations being taken up within the poverty-stricken Scottish metropolis by migrants.
Mr Markie, 56, was sacked from his function on the Salvation Military’s Strathmore Lodge hostel which homes migrants in Dundee, after telling colleagues: ‘There would not be a housing scarcity if we weren’t taking in 150 refugees,’ and ‘ship all of them again on a f***ing boat’.
He spoke out after an employment tribunal threw out his declare that he had been unfairly dismissed by the Salvation Military and dominated that the actions of the Christian charity which helps the homeless had been justified.
In an unique interview with the Each day Mail, Mr Markie stated: ‘I am not a racist. One of many guys that I work with each day within the workplace is from South Korea. He was my buddy at work, to name me racist is loopy.
‘My mate from Turkey wished to return to the tribunal with me. My solicitor stated no and we might do it ourselves as we have now sufficient so he did not come.
‘I haven’t got any affiliation with any racist teams or have any destructive views about individuals from different cultures or races.’
Salvation Military employee Charles Markie, 56, who was sacked after saying migrants needs to be despatched again dwelling ‘on a f***ing boat’ has damaged his silence to insist he’s not racist
Mr Markie, 56, was sacked from his function on the Salvation Military’s Strathmore Lodge hostel which homes migrants in Dundee after making feedback about migrants
Mr Markie stood by his feedback which misplaced him his job, saying he was merely involved about how the variety of migrants within the metropolis had hampered efforts to assist deal with Dundee’s long-standing homeless problem.
He stated: ‘After I first began the individuals had been predominantly from Dundee. Round seven years in the past we began to get extra Polish or African individuals by way of the door for varied causes.
‘I might deal with all individuals equally, 100 per cent. Initially we weren’t actually affected by migrants who would come by way of boats. We might get the odd particular person and we would at all times take them in and help them to get into housing.
‘However during the last couple of years it’s got worse and we have taken in increasingly. I had nothing in opposition to that in any respect, so long as we had someplace for them to go.’
Dundee has seen round 1,000 refugees or migrants settle within the metropolis previously 5 years together with greater than 500 Ukrainians arriving between 2022 and 2024, in accordance with Dundee Metropolis Council Figures.
Round 250 nationals from Syria, Iraq and different troubled international locations have arrived as a part of resettlement schemes since 2020.
Mr Markie, whose job concerned supporting homeless and weak individuals together with refugees, stated: ‘I’ve supported lots of of international residents over 20 years. Not as soon as was my behaviour in the direction of them ever taken into query.
‘It was said within the tribunal that it did not make a distinction to me what nationality somebody was.’
Mr Markie stated he believed administration used his ‘boats’ remark as an excuse to fireside him
Mr Markie was sacked in March 2024, regardless of working for the Salvation Military for almost 20 years, after fellow employees had been shocked by his feedback about sending migrants dwelling.
One colleague allegedly challenged him and requested if these he wished deported included a consumer of the hostel who was a refugee from Syria.
The employees member claimed Mr Markie responded, ‘Sure, the lot of them’, however he has since vigorously denied saying this.
Mr Markie stated: ‘How the dialog went was one of many managers approached myself and one other employees member.
‘They stated Dundee Metropolis Council had been altering their coverage on homelessness. Residents would now not get three affords of housing, they might solely get one they usually’d must take it.
‘I stated that is not truthful as you possibly can’t put any person that depends upon household help on the reverse finish of town. They weren’t even going to be close to their GP, a variety of these individuals wanted their help community to get off medicine.
‘Then it got here up how Dundee Metropolis Council had simply taken in 150 Syrian refugees and put them into native lodging.
‘I requested, “The place are we placing them? We have not acquired homes for our personal individuals”.
Mr Markie was sacked in March 2024, regardless of working for the Salvation Military for almost 20 years, after fellow employees had been shocked by his feedback about sending migrants dwelling
‘I used to be getting pissed off with the dialog and was passionately defending Dundee homelessness.
‘Any person requested me what would I do with them then? I simply stated “ship them again on boats”. I used to be requested if I believed it was a racist remark which I refused to confess.
‘I stand by what I stated, I do not suppose I stated something flawed. The remark they claimed I stated, “Yeah the lot of them”, I by no means stated that.’
He added: ‘I used to be actually arguing for one man that I used to be supporting on the time. His aged mother and father lived in Fintry and wanted help.
‘He was homeless and was going to get a suggestion on a property in Menzieshill six miles away so would wish to get the bus.
‘He stated he was unemployed and hardly getting any advantages so how might he get there every single day, he did not have the means. They weren’t giving him the choice of the native connection to that space.
‘That is not truthful, we’re making an attempt to assist these individuals not set them as much as fail. However we’re nonetheless ready to usher in 150 Syrian refugees, who I do really feel sorry for. However they modified the foundations simply to accommodate the refugees.’
The tribunal was instructed Mr Markie was ‘aggressive and offended’ when he made his feedback after being instructed of modifications to the council housing coverage.
Mr Markie claimed for unfair dismissal, direct intercourse discrimination and harassment however all three had been dismissed at a tribunal held in Dundee
A colleague knowledgeable his line supervisor, Tracey Younger, about it as a result of she hoped ‘the claimant can be “pulled up” as what he stated was racist’.
After being warned by Miss Younger about his behaviour, Mr Markie started complaining that the employees ‘could not even joke or participate in banter’.
He added: ‘I used to be there for 20 years, I used to be by no means in bother as soon as and at all times stored to the foundations and laws. I’ve by no means been in any bother in my life, no legal convictions or something like that.’
Mr Markie stated he believed administration had used his ‘boats’ remark as an excuse to fireside him.
He stated: ‘I acquired sacked for having an opinion and defending Scottish homelessness and Dundee residents.
‘In actuality I believe I acquired sacked for a unique incident a few weeks earlier than. I used to be having a dialog with two colleagues the place I made some remarks concerning the present administration group and the way they had been by no means there, we by no means acquired help but they wished to be concerned in each resolution. But when they had been by no means there, how might they be?
‘They got here in late, went dwelling early and half the time had been by no means on shift. I believe I stated “you lead by instance” but when I adopted theirs, I might be in my mattress. I believe for this reason I used to be sacked, that I spoke up in opposition to their poor administration abilities.
‘Unbeknown to me one of many colleagues I used to be talking to went straight to administration and handed on what I stated. Administration took offence to this however by no means got here to me immediately about it.
‘However there was a group assembly, and it got here up there the place administration ridiculed me for what I stated. They used my boats remark to sack me, it is so simple as that.’
Mr Markie claimed for unfair dismissal, direct intercourse discrimination and harassment. However all three claims had been dismissed by Employment Decide James Hendry at a tribunal held in Dundee in September final yr.
Publishing his ruling on December 31, Decide Hendry stated: ‘The proof confirmed that the claimant’s colleagues had been shocked on the remark made, betraying, as they noticed it, an entire insensitivity in the direction of people who they had been obligation sure to assist.’
Mr Markie stated: ‘My solicitor was assured they’d discover in my favour. I used to be sacked after 20 years of by no means being in bother and saying one factor.
‘I might cowl the evening shift at a second’s discover after doing a dayshift, I stood in and did the on-call shift when wanted, there was no job I would not cowl.
‘I nonetheless help the charity, they do nice issues and I might by no means wish to put them down. It isn’t the Salvation Military however the administration group at Strathmore Lodge that was the issue.
‘After I made the assertion, nobody was upset. I labored with one of many employees that night and never as soon as did she say something.
‘We had a relationship the place she would’ve stated one thing if it bothered her. We labored completely that evening with no animosity or in poor health feeling.
‘My colleagues had been all instructed at a employees assembly to not contact me. The administration was clearly making an attempt to tie every little thing collectively, it was a really poisonous place ultimately.
‘As a result of influence on my psychological well being I have been signed off long run. So now I am unemployed. I spent the final of my life financial savings on the listening to hoping I might win and get it again however clearly I misplaced.’
The tribunal was instructed how Mr Markie initially appeared at a Salvation Military disciplinary listening to after his migrant feedback
He stated: ‘I did not say the F phrase. I stated ship all of them again on a ship. I did not swear. Later within the investigation I did swear and put palms as much as that.
‘It was my perspective, wasn’t directed at anybody. We’re letting too many individuals in when we do not have amenities or housing to present them’, he stated.
Requested how he would take care of a rise in refugees, Mr Markie instructed the listening to: ‘It would not trouble me.’
He then instructed managers that he might ‘get carried away’, including: ‘I do make silly feedback however do not imply any hurt.’
The tribunal heard that Salvation Military service supervisor Karen Good who chaired the disciplinary listening to that she believed his remark was racist and ‘undermined any belief she had within the claimant’s potential to hold on together with his function, which concerned serving to refugees based mostly on their wants’.
She concluded he had dedicated gross misconduct by expressing these views and that he needs to be summarily dismissed.
The tribunal was instructed Mr Markie emailed Miss Good, taking problem with the suggestion that he was aggressive, and claimed that everybody was ‘laughing’ through the dialog.
Mr Markie wrote to Miss Good: ‘Sack me, however do not sack me for gross misconduct.’
