Ahmed Soliman sacked Sky Sinclair from the Old Toll Bar in Glasgow.
16:53, 08 Sep 2025Updated 20:36, 08 Sep 2025
Skye Sinclair won a payout after being discriminated against by a Glasgow pub boss
The boss of a popular Scots pub has been ordered to pay £18,000 to a white female worker he unfairly sacked after she won a discrimination case against him.
Ahmed Soliman was found to have told aspiring actor Sky Sinclair she “liked white people better” and described the blonde haired, blue eyed duty manager as “Aryan” at the Old Toll Bar in Glasgow – one of the city’s oldest watering holes.
An employment tribunal heard Mr Soliman asked the 34-year-old “how was Germany?”, leaving her feeling she was being accused of being “racist or associated with Nazi ideology”.
Employment Judge Shona MacLean said Mr Soliman’s comments “constituted unwanted conduct” and found he had discriminated against his employee due to race and sex.
She said: “Two comments related to race and one related to sex.
Ahmed Soliman owns the Old Toll Bar(Image: Elaine Livingstone)
“The race related remarks were unsolicited. (Mr Soliman) appeared to derive satisfaction from the claimant’s discomfort. “Even if that was not the purpose, viewed objectively it was reasonable in my view to have that effect.
“As the business owner, his comments on the claimant’s race and appearance placed her in a difficult position.”
At a Glasgow tribunal the worker accused Mr Soliman of “violating her dignity” and creating a “degrading, intimidating, humiliating and offensive environment” before she was unfairly dismissed by the company without notice or written reasons in April last year.
The hearing proceeded in Mr Soliman’s absence due to ill health, where he was found to have made a string of comments to his employee.
It heard Ms Sinclair had been working at the Kinning Park pub for around a year when Mr Soliman said in 2023: “You look very Aryan with your blue eyes and blond hair”. Ms Sinclair took the comment as a joke but felt “uncomfortable and unsure how to respond”.
The Old Toll bar in Kinning Park(Image: Elaine Livingstone)
Later that year, after Ms Sinclair had bought a coffee for a white colleague, Mr Soliman was said to have asked: “Is that for me?” and when he was told it was not, he added: “Oh yeh forgot you like white people better”. He was then said to have asked: “How was Germany?”.
The judgement said: “The claimant had no connection with Germany and interpreted the comment, in light of the earlier remark, as suggesting that she was racist or associated with Nazi ideology.”
In October that year, Ms Sinclair accused her boss of making a “threatening” comment to a colleague in a group chat and said there was often a “tense atmosphere” when he was at work.
The tribunal heard that Mr Soliman replied that he was “not blaming staff for quiet periods but he needed to control spending and felt a lack of feedback was insulting and hurtful”.
Ms Sinclair said Mr Soliman went on to delete a message in which she asked for support and when she enquired with another manager why it had happened she was told that it was because she had said Mr Soliman came across as threatening.
The judgement said: “The manager reported that (Mr Soliman) had commented, ‘You just get some females like that’.
“The claimant felt anxious about this comment. She thought that (Mr Soliman) did not have a high regard for women who did not agree with him.”
Ms Sinclair was removed from the work group chat and dismissed a month later, having worked there for two years.
She was told by her manager that she was being “dismissed due to poor sales performance” and told to “leave immediately”.
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Judge MacLean said there was “no evidence of misconduct”.
She ordered the company to pay Ms Sinclair £18,568 in compensation.
She said: “The third comment, relayed to her by a manager, was not race-related but related to sex. It was reasonable for Ms Sinclair to be upset that he had made such remarks about her to other staff.
“The dismissal appeared predetermined to avoid her acquiring statutory rights.
“I concluded the dismissal was for an unfair reason.”
Ms Sinclair has appeared in a string of short films and recently completed filming a lead role in feature film “ZANNI”.
The tribunal heard she secured temporary work after her dismissal but had continued to experience “financial loss’.
The Record has tried to contact Mr Soliman for comment.