Pizza Hut employee was attacked at work by a male colleague and feared she would be killed

A Pizza Hut employee feared for her life when she was attacked in front of customers by a delivery driver who snatched a kitchen utensil from her and tried to kill her with it.

Mehak Dudeja says she was harassed, verbally assaulted, punched in the face and then attacked by male staff before colleagues intervened. The 22-year-old, from Essex, was a shift manager when she was attacked. She says this was the third disturbing incident at the fast-food chain and she claims her employers never stepped in to help.

An employment tribunal upheld the ruling and she was awarded nearly £40,000 in compensation, but Ms Dudeja has still not seen a penny of it. She was so terrified she was unable to return to work and did not find another restaurant job until more than four months later. Franchise company Nine Food Group Limited has appealed and the case will now not be heard until February 2025.

Ms Dudeja was an international student who came to the UK from India to study business. In 2020, she started working part-time at Pizza Hut in Dagenham to pay her rent and tuition fees. She was quickly promoted to shift manager and eventually started working there full-time after completing her university degree. She claims she soon became the target of crude misogynistic comments and male colleagues asked her out on dates.

She told the Mirror: “In April 2021, it was just a normal shift, I was doing my job, there was a driver who kept asking me out, I told him I wasn’t interested and I was his manager. He made me feel very uncomfortable, he just wouldn’t stop with his comments, he was so forceful.

“I told my manager, but a few days later we were back on the same shift. I was shocked. I had been waiting for help from my boss. I couldn’t quit my job, I had to pay my rent and my student loans. I couldn’t just quit, I had to work. But I got no support at all. This was my workplace, not a nightclub.”

In one incident in the summer of 2021, she claims she was attacked. Another male co-worker yelled and verbally abused her when she was asked to step in and help out for a day on her first shift at another Pizza Hut branch. Ms Dudeja said: “He screamed in my face and yelled, ‘You’re not telling me what to do, who the hell are you?’ He came right at me and I asked him to step back, but then he grabbed my wrist. I knew he was going to hurt me and I was terrified.”

She claims that she was once again not supported by her manager and that the driver continued to work for her, but she herself refused to help out at that branch again. “I cried like a little child, a manager took a bill for me, but nothing came of it.”

But the worst was to come the following year, Ms Dudeja said, describing it as “the incident that changed my life.” She continued: “I shake when I talk about it and it makes me so anxious even now.” Ms Dudeja claims she was preparing food alone when a driver arrived late for work, then drove off and took nearly an hour to deliver an order, prompting his shift supervisor Ms Dudeja to ask him what was wrong.

“He came into the restaurant and was so angry that he couldn’t control himself and started cursing at me. I asked him to clock out to try to calm the situation down. Then he grabbed a kitchen utensil that we use to get the pizza out of the hot oven and threw it at me. Then he came up to me and hit me. He knew I was scared so I asked him to just leave. I thought he was trying to kill me.”

She reported the attack herself to the Metropolitan Police and her attacker – who was fired – was later offered the opportunity to write a letter of apology to Ms Dudeja as part of a so-called community resolution. A Metropolitan Police spokesman told the Mirror that in this case a “common solution was agreed as the most appropriate way to resolve the matter”.

In a letter certified by a police officer, he wrote: “… (I) ask for your forgiveness for my behavior and actions on July 10, 2022, when I intimidated, threatened, and physically and verbally assaulted you… I also apologize for attempting to strike you with a sharp object with the intent to kill you or cause you serious bodily harm before I was stopped… In hindsight, I realize that you were just doing your job when you asked about delays in my delivery and that my actions are not justified…”

Unable to return to work due to fear and anxiety over what had happened while she was trying to do her job, Ms Dudeja took Pizza Hut franchisee Nine Food Group to an employment tribunal, claiming sexual discrimination.

She believes her employer could have prevented further trouble if they had supported her after the first incident, but claims: “They were more concerned about not losing staff than about these men treating me so badly. I shouldn’t have had three incidents, but I had no choice, I had to work.”

The court ruled in Ms Dudeja’s favour in May 2022, saying she had been discriminated against under section 13 of the Equality Act 2010 because she was a woman. She was awarded £38,421.73 in compensation, including £3,805 for loss of earnings. The company was also ordered to pay her £960 in legal costs.

Ms Dudeja has not yet received her payout as the company has appealed the decision, with a date set for the appeal to be heard in February 2025. A spokeswoman for Pizza Hut UK and Ireland said: “We are aware of a case involving one of our franchises but as the case is ongoing we will not be commenting further.”

In November 2023, a trainee police officer whose career was in tatters and a young mother who lost her job after the pair complained about shocking verbal abuse from staff at Pizza Hut spoke to the Mirror about their time at Pizza Hut.

Kailam Fearn and Sian Murphy have spoken out to encourage others who may witness similar behaviour or suffer from it themselves to take action – Ms Dudeja spoke to the Mirror after hearing their stories.

The pair exposed a toxic work culture rife with sexual remarks, transphobic, homophobic and racist behaviour within the popular fast-food chain. Their revelation of the appalling working environment at two branches in Neath Port Talbot, Wales, made headlines across the UK and, although their bravery was not insignificant, the pair were ultimately acquitted at an employment tribunal.

Kailam remained firm, saying: “People need to speak out,” and Sian added: “They don’t have to go to work and feel uncomfortable.”

EXCLUSIVE: Young mother loses job and experiences nightmare when abuse at Pizza Hut is exposed