Mr D Beyea v The Secretary of State for Justice — 2023

The claimant resigned after transferring to HMP Birmingham and complained that the respondent had constructively dismissed him, directly discriminated against him because of race, harassed him related to race, and failed to pay accrued annual leave. The tribunal extended time for the discrimination complaints, finding the events of 7 March 2021 were central and the delay was modest, with little or no prejudice to the respondent.

On constructive dismissal, the tribunal found there had been no racial profiling and no allegation that the claimant had brought drugs into the prison. It found the respondent had reasonable and proper cause to question him after his behaviour at the gate aroused suspicion, and that Ms Booker's follow-up email was good management practice. The respondent had failed to provide Cnomis login details, but the tribunal found this did not substantially impede the claimant's work and did not come close to conduct likely to destroy or seriously damage trust and confidence. It also found the respondent, through Mr Bywater and Ms Booker, had sought to maintain contact and support him during suspension and sickness absence.

For direct race discrimination, the tribunal found no facts from which it could conclude that the interviews, the Cnomis login failure, alleged failures to respond to requests, or the lack of response to the misaddressed email to Ms Barwe were because of race. It accepted the respondent's explanations, including that the gate incident was addressed because of the claimant's behaviour and that the login issue was an administrative failing unrelated to race.

For harassment related to race, the tribunal found the interviews and Ms Booker's email were unwanted by the claimant but were not related to race. The annual leave claim was also dismissed after the claimant accepted, when the respondent's evidence was put to him, that the annual leave calculation was correct; the tribunal found he had been paid all he was entitled to.