In Person For the v Mr A Tinnion - Counsel — 2018

The claimant alleged direct race discrimination arising from the respondent's failure to appoint him to the Facilities Manager and Security Team Leader roles in February 2018. The tribunal identified the relevant comparators as white candidates and accepted that the claimant was British of Pakistani descent. It treated the non-appointments as the discriminatory acts for limitation purposes and considered the latest relevant dates to be 7 February 2018 for the FM role and around 19 February 2018 for the STL role.

The tribunal found that the recruitment process lacked contemporaneous records and objective structure. It found there were no notes of the interviews, no evidence of set criteria, and no reliable documentary trail showing what was sent to Britvic or how any shortlist or final decision was reached. It rejected Mr Jordan's evidence on several points, including his account of the claimant's CV, and was not satisfied that the claimant's full CV had been put before Britvic or that Britvic had been shown to be the actual decision-maker. It also preferred the claimant's evidence that he was not interviewed for the Security Team Leader role.

On time limits, the tribunal held that the claims were out of time on their face but extended time as just and equitable under s.123 EqA. It relied on the claimant's attempt to resolve matters through the grievance process, the respondent's delay in dealing with that process, and the absence of prejudice to the cogency of the evidence. Applying the s.136 EqA burden of proof, the tribunal held that the claimant had established a prima facie case of race discrimination and that the respondent had not proved the decisions were unconnected with race. It declared the race discrimination claims well-founded and left remedy to a later hearing.