A COLCHESTER United charity worker has won a £13,000 payout after a tribunal decided he was “victimised” in his dismissal from the club following a clash with chairman Robbie Cowling.

Mark Harris, who worked for the club’s Football in the Community charitable arm, “barged into” Mr Cowling following a foul-mouthed exchange between the pair, an employment tribunal heard.

Mr Cowling told police he had been headbutted by Mark Harris, but CCTV suggested he had most likely been barged into “stomach first” during the incident.

The confrontation came following a long-running issue regarding Mr Harris’ dismissal from the club’s charity back in April 2019.

His role was deemed to be no longer viable after a training programme he was organising was stopped.

Mr Harris saw his grievance over his sacking dismissed on July 13, 2019, but then took the matter to an internal appeal which was attended by Mr Cowling himself.

During the hearing, Mr Harris asked for disciplinary action to be taken against charity chief executive, Corin Haines.

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The claimant also asked for an apology and compensation to be agreed for two former colleagues who had left the charity.

Notes from the tribunal state Mr Cowling was “seething” after hearing the demands and told Mr Harris after the meeting that his claims were “frivolous”.

The duo were then said to have directed “foul language”

at each other during a row.

It was alleged Mr Cowling swore at Mr Harris in the exchange of words.

The tribunal found “without difficulty” Mr Cowling had likely used an offensive phrase.

The tribunal eventually ruled Mr Harris had been victimised by being dismissed, and found the real reason behind his dismissal was because he had helped a former colleague during her own grievance meeting with the football club’s charity.

Judge Paul Housego said: “Mr Harris lost a job which he loved, for which he was well suited, at which he would have stayed indefinitely, and which was irreplaceable: it was a unique job.”