Burger King complaint: Direct discrimination?

Good day

I’m a 17 year old woman of colour that applied for a job at Burger King-Lakeside. My application was reviewed and I was interviewed by one of the store managers (Luke). The interview went relatively well and I got the job on the spot. A few days later I was asked to bring in my documents so that the next stage of the hiring process could take place. I did exactly that and even signed a contract stating how I had gotten the job. Bare in mind that Luke had even informed me how I was the first individual that he had interviewed. I was extremely overwhelmed with happiness as I was looking forward to representing the Burger King brand positively.
I was even added onto the employee WhatsApp group which I at the time had thought was a clear ation that I had safely secured my position with the Burger King Lakeside crew. That was until the second store manager (Trafford) sent a message onto the group that shared the roster for the upcoming week and unfortunately I was not on it. I was saddened by the realisation, but then continued to read a message from Trafford that he had publicly sent onto the group, @⁨Val🌼⁩ You should hopefully be starting the week after now. Just been a few issues processing your documents. This raised some concerns on my side, it was definitely humiliating to be called out on an issue that could have been addressed privately, but I Iet it slide anyway and proceeded to send a DIRECT message to the manager in order to maintain some sort of professionalism. This is the message that I sent to Trafford (the manager that did not interview me and probably was not aware of my race/ethnicity when Luke informed him about hiring me)…Hi Trafford, just wondering what the issues with my documents are maybe I could be of some help…
Trafford: Hi, we may need some extra documents from you at some point. I’m just waiting for ation of what extra documents we need.

Myself: Oh alright, W39 PEZ 2T2 is my share code (for my right to work in the UK) just thought I could send it to you in case you were having trouble finding it. Please don’t hesitate to ask for more documents or information etcetera.

Trafford: Thank you. Do you have any proof of your right to work in UK please? Something that shows your share code on it. Your residence permit also says ‘Restricted Work’, we just need some more information on that too please.

I then proceeded to walk him through everything and tried to explain how ‘Restricted Work ‘ simply meant that I could not be a professional sportsperson/sports coach in the UK. I also sent him a screenshot of my share code which included a picture of myself and dome details from the home office. I also took the initiative of explaining the steps since it seemed like he was not sure of what he was doing.

I am not a British citizen, but I have all the necessary documents that an individual like myself needs to stay and work in the UK legally. My Visa is a dependent visa. All my documents were provided and are legit, therefore I believe that British citizen and I should have equal opportunities and I should not be discriminated against. I also strongly believe that the manager should have the knowledge of verifying ALL individuals’ documents regardless if they are British born or immigrants etcetera.

A few hours went by before receiving a message from him.

Hi Valerie,

Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances we can no longer proceed with the hiring process.

There have been a few issues with processing your documents and I have taken advice from my area manager and our head office, and we have decided that we unfortunately must retract the offer of employment.

I understand this may not be the outcome you wanted and would like to apologise for any inconvenience.

I just find it funny how he could take the time to process all the British born citizens’ documents and the suddenly raise concerns and informally dismiss me after signing a contract without a solid explanation. Was it because of the colour of my skin? My ethnicity? My immigration status? A formal explanation was never shared with me. So I can safely assume that it was because of the mentioned reasons. Bare in mind that verifying these documents takes less than 5 minutes and I was the first individual to be employed.

I never thought that I would experience something like this firsthand, but I am greatly hurt by the way the management team of Burgerking-Lakeside have decided to go about things.

I hope that I can receive necessary assistance to bring justice and make sure that such situations will not happen to other individuals in the future.