An EMPLOYMENT tribunal has thrown out a £40,000 damages claim by a university IT worker who claimed women colleagues bullied him.

Judge Andrew Gumbiti-Zimuto dismissed claims by Peter Farrar, from Chineham, of sexual discrimination and unfair constructive dismissal.

The 53-year-old had alleged his boss told him to “man up” after he said he was screamed and shouted at by female colleagues at the University of Creative Arts in Farnham, Surrey.

Mr Farrar began working at the university in October 2016, but quit just six months later after claiming female staff told him he was “menacing and scary looking, loud when sneezing and lazy.”

The university disputed his claims and Judge Gumbiti-Zimuto had initially said on Thursday, June 28 he would issue a reserved judgement within 90 days after hearing three-and-a-half days of evidence at an employment tribunal in Reading.

This means a judge does not immediately deliver a decision but instead takes time to review evidence and the law and deliver a decision at a later time.

However just 24 hours later, all parties were hauled back to the hearing where Judge Gumbiti-Zimuto threw out Farrar’s case after finding no evidence to support his discrimination claim.

In a statement released after the hearing, a spokesman for the University of Creative Arts said: “The employment tribunal rejected each and every one of the allegations raised by the former employee, concluding that it could find no evidence that discrimination had taken place.

“The employment tribunal entirely accepted the versions of events provided by other employees of the university who gave evidence at the hearing and who, the tribunal concluded, had not discriminated against the individual and had acted appropriately. The employment tribunal also noted that the former employee’s evidence was ‘unreliable in a way that has been significant’.

“The university wholeheartedly supports the actions taken by its employees. The claim was totally unfounded and unsubstantiated and the university welcomes the decision of the employment tribunal, particularly its exoneration of the actions of the university’s employees.

“Now that the employment tribunal has delivered its judgment, the university will be making no further comment.”