One of the country’s top horse trainers allegedly mocked an Indian stablehand’s accent and told him and other employees to speak proper English while at work.

In one instance Stephen McKee even told the other man, “It wouldn’t matter if an Indian died, there would still be a billion left” after he’d nearly been kicked by a difficult horse.

While McKee claims much of this was in the context of “group banter” his employee, Itwinder Singh, felt humiliated by what he described as persistent racial abuse and took his claim to the country’s foremost human rights court in the country last year.

Today, the Human Rights Review Tribunal sided with Singh and ruled that McKee, who was one of the country’s top horse trainers until he retired in 2021, must pay his former stablehand $10,000.

It’s not the first time McKee has been through the legal system in recent years, after being sentenced and ordered to pay more than $370,000 to an aspiring jockey who suffered an horrific accident while working at his property that left her a tetraplegic.

McKee successfully appealed that sentence and managed to reduce the compensation he had to pay Sophia Malthus by $100,000.

Former jockey Sophia Malthus, who was injured in a riding accident. Photo / Dean Purcell

At the hearing into the allegations against McKee in Auckland last year, he admitted asking staff to speak in English as a matter of safety in a potentially dangerous work environment, including one comment where he said, “I pay you in dollars not rupees” and another comment where he said, “How much do I owe you, $5 or $10, isn’t that what you get in India”.

However, McKee maintains these comments were all made in jest and in the context of group banter with multiple stablehands present, rather than being targeted racial abuse against Singh.

• Top horse trainer accused of racist jokes by Indian employee

“We were joking around and making banter. I certainly have not been abusive in speaking to my Indian employees as Mr Singh alleges,” McKee told the tribunal.

“I don’t have any issues with Indians, their culture nor their work ethic.”

Singh had worked for McKee since 2011 and had stayed with the business until 2017, when it was downscaled and he was made redundant in favour of keeping on full-time employees.

McKee’s lawyer, Paul Wicks KC, said despite his claims of racial harassment, Singh fought to remain employed by McKee after being made redundant and even lodged a complaint to the Employment Relations Authority in 2019 claiming he’d been unjustifiably dismissed. The authority’s ruling is yet to be issued in that matter.

Singh told the tribunal his boss had always made passing comments about Indians or his accent, but he was able to ignore it until it became more frequent and abusive in his last few years of employment under McKee.

“It just felt like the lives of the Indians don’t matter to him ... like they’re dispensable,” he said.

The tribunal said McKee did use all of the language Singh claimed he had in reference to him and other stablehands and showed disrespect towards him for simply being Indian.

“Objecting to Mr Singh and others conversing in Hindi and insisting they speak English at work when this was not necessary for safety reasons and where it was known some staff had very limited English plainly brings Mr Singh into contempt for being Indian,” the tribunal’s judgment reads.

Stephen McKee gave up professionally training and racing horses in 2021. Photo / Brett Phibbs

“These actions show disregard and disrespect to Mr Singh on the grounds of his race, ethnic and national origin as they infer his native language (a fundamental part of his ethnic identity) is inferior to English and is somehow inherently objectionable.”

The tribunal found the language McKee subjected Singh to had a detrimental effect on him and created a demeaning work environment, where he was constantly anxious about when the next humiliating remark would be made. However, the tribunal did note that after Singh raised some of his issues during a meeting with his employer in 2019 about the way he was being treated, McKee apologised and stopped making the offensive remarks.

“The Tribunal has no hesitation in accepting Mr Singh’s evidence that as a result of the racial harassment he felt humiliated, belittled, had self-doubt, a loss of self-respect, aggravation, frustration, anger (for being sworn at for conversing in his native language, in particular as Mr McKee knew the majority of Indian staff had very limited English proficiency), anxiety and stress.”

The tribunal ordered that McKee pay Singh $10,000 in compensation for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to Singh’s feelings.

Singh told NZME on Friday he felt the award was fair but was mostly just glad to reach the end of a long process that took nearly four years.

“It was mainly my word against his so it’s good to see the tribunal has ruled in my favour on the balance of probabilities,” he said.

“If someone does you wrong then you have to try and make it right … you have to face some consequences for your actions.”

McKee, through his counsel, declined to comment for this article.

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.