Nigerian Woman Wins Racial Profiling Case against US Pharmaceutical Firm

Tolulope Fayokun, a senior manager at Johnson & Johnson, has successfully won a discrimination case against the company, alleging racial profiling by her boss, Alessandra Toro.

Fayokun had dragged the pharmaceutical before an employment tribunal after she was dismissed in early 2020, with the tribunal determining that Toro had discriminated against her by referring to her Nigerian origins.

The tribunal heard that Fayokun’s relationship with Toro, whom Fayokun – a dual British and Nigerian national – reported to and was the Director for Strategic Insights and Analytics at J&J, took a detrimental turn when she was presented with a document outlining ‘Nigerian traits.’

Toro had conducted research into Nigerian workplaces, suggesting that Fayokun was lazy and operated on ‘African time,’ implying a lack of punctuality.

Toro allegedly told Fayokun, “I’m different from Nigeria,” highlighting differences in their perspectives on deadlines and workplace flexibility.

Subsequently, after Fayokun’s dismissal, she filed a lawsuit for race discrimination, leading to a tribunal judge’s conclusion that she had been unfairly ‘racially profiled.’

The tribunal heard details of Fayokun’s professional journey at Johnson & Johnson, where she initially demonstrated strong leadership. However, as time passed, she began feeling overwhelmed by her workload, leading to strained relations with Toro. The relationship worsened during a work trip to the USA, and upon returning, Toro presented Fayokun with what she described as a ‘racially profiling document.’

While Fayokun expressed her grievances against her bosses, Toro argued that she presented a report on ‘cultural fluency’ rather than racial profiling. Despite Toro’s different perspective, the tribunal concluded that Fayokun had been discriminated against by the ‘profiling exercise.’

The compensation for Fayokun will be determined in a subsequent hearing. However, additional claims made by Fayokun, including unfair dismissal, victimisation, harassment, and religious, and racial discrimination, were dismissed by the tribunal.