Mr Marek Nowak Ms Kamila Hoffmann v Took US A Long Time Ltd — 2020

The tribunal found that Mr Marek Nowak and Ms Kamila Hoffmann did not resign from their employment in July 2018. It accepted that Mr Fernando Freitas retained earlier handwritten resignation letters from October 2017 and later amended them to give the false impression that the claimants had resigned in July 2018. On the tribunal's findings, the respondent dismissed the claimants by treating them as having resigned when they had not.

The race discrimination claims failed. Applying section 13, section 23, section 39 and section 136 of the Equality Act 2010 together with the burden of proof approach in Igen v Wong, the tribunal held that the claimants had not proved facts from which race could properly be inferred as a material reason for Mr Freitas' conduct. It found no evidence that he was seeking to replace Polish staff with Portuguese staff, and it accepted that the use of Mr Victor da Silva to cover Mr Nowak's absence was a decision taken by Mr De Souza in response to urgent staffing needs.

The tribunal also accepted that the employer's instruction that English be spoken at work reflected an express handbook policy applicable to all staff, rather than a policy singling out Polish speakers. It considered Mr Freitas' dishonesty in creating the false resignation letters, but did not draw an inference of discriminatory motivation from that conduct. Instead, it found that his actions were a reaction to the claimants' coordinated sick notes on 9 and 10 July 2018, the refused holiday request, and the earlier history of abortive resignation attempts in October 2017 and March 2018. The claimants' race discrimination claims were therefore dismissed.

Ms Kamila Hoffmann's claim for an unauthorised deduction from wages succeeded because the tribunal found that she worked on 9 July 2018 and was not paid for that shift. Her contractual hourly rate was £8.20, and the tribunal ordered the respondent to pay her £104.55.