A DUDLEY apprentice complained she was sacked while working in London, given her train fare and told to make her own way back home.

Anita Yazdani, of Regent Street, Dudley, told Birmingham Employment Tribunal :”The advertisement for my job was a sham.”

Miss Yazdani who was 19 when she lost her job, had been employed by The Business Growth Show Ltd of Birmingham, which arranges exhibitions in different parts of the country.

Her apprenticeship involved helping her employers arrange exhibitions and included a day release apprentice course at South City College, Birmingham.

She said she was paid an apprentice rate of £2.60 an hour for a 37 hour week but alleged she should have been paid a higher rate.

Miss Yazdani, who is of Iranian origin, was seeking compensation for race discrimination, unpaid wages and notice and holiday pay, against her former employers.

After asking her boss not to pay her wages into her bank account she said he wanted to know why and allegedly asked: “Is it because you are an immigrant.”

She said she regarded this an insult – prompting her race discrimination claim.

The tribunal was told that Miss Yazdani was taken to London by vehicle for an exhibition but had an argument with woman colleague on the way there over jewellery.

She later lost her way back to her London hotel after the exhibition, and contacted her boss several boss several times by phone.

The tribunal was told that her boss had been very busy at the time and eventually terminated her job.

She said she was given her train fare and told to make her own way home.

The respondents opposed Miss Yazdani’s compensation claims and said she had been dismissed for gross misconduct.

Tribunal judge Alan McCarry said he was satisfied that the question about her being an immigrant had not been racist or a detriment. And after examining her payments the tribunal decided that she had been overpaid and was not owed wages.

Mr McCarry said she was entitled to £97.50 notice pay, however, plus £58 holiday pay.

He suggested Miss Yazdani should consider taking the firm to the county court to obtain her money if it has not been paid within the next few weeks.

But the firm assured the tribunal the money would be paid promptly.