Claimant v McLean v Bromford Housing Group Ltd — 2023

Miss V McLean applied for a Customer Service Adviser role with Bromford Housing Group Limited and attended interview by MS Teams on 2 December 2021 after an inadvertent cancellation of the original 1 December slot. The tribunal accepted that the cancellation was a mistake rather than a deliberate act, and found that the interview panel later scored her highly and recommended her for appointment. After offer and pre-employment checks, she started work on 10 January 2022 on an induction arrangement that could last between four weeks and six months, with one week's notice during that period.

The tribunal rejected the claimant's central allegation that the matters she complained about were done because of race or national origin. It found the right-to-work checks were required by statute; there was no evidence of deliberate cancellation of the interview; the alleged faulty laptop was not proved and no one in IT was shown to have known her race; there was no basis for the suggestion that an Asian colleague had been sent to make a final verdict on her; and Mr Smith had a good working relationship with her and had originally recommended her for hire. The tribunal also rejected the allegations about "black trainees" and "coconut", finding that Ms Verdi did not use the expression "black trainees" and that the "bounty" reference was about herself.

The tribunal found that the dismissal on 21 February 2022 followed an accumulation of performance and induction concerns, including two data breaches during training, failure properly to record an emergency call, problems with system use, and refusal of further support. It accepted that these concerns were discussed with the claimant in meetings, that she was given a chance to respond, and that the decision makers believed there had been insufficient improvement. The appeal was investigated by Ms Havenhand and not upheld. The claimant's notice-pay claim also failed because she was paid in lieu for the contractual notice period, and no further contractual sum was due.