Ebeneezer Paul Tagoe v Fernando Private Ltd — 2025

The claimant, a black African man of Ghanaian heritage, worked as manager of a Greggs outlet at a garage operated by the respondent for over six years before being summarily dismissed for gross misconduct on 24 April 2023 following a disciplinary hearing conducted by the company's owner. The Tribunal held that the disciplinary process was unfair, the investigation inadequate, that there were no reasonable grounds for the respondent's belief in some of the alleged misconduct, and that dismissal was in any event not a fair sanction. The unfair dismissal claim therefore succeeded.

On direct race discrimination, the Tribunal found facts from which it could conclude that the claimant had been treated less favourably than a hypothetical comparator who was not a black African would have been treated, including that the claimant stood out among a largely Sri Lankan workforce, was replaced by a Sri Lankan employee known to the owner, and that some allegations (notably those linked to a nickname referring to drugs) appeared connected to his appearance as a black African of Rastafarian appearance. The burden under s.136 Equality Act 2010 shifted to the respondent, which did not discharge it; the s.13 claim accordingly succeeded.

The holiday pay claim succeeded in principle (£1,413.96 owed at dismissal) but the respondent was entitled to set off an equivalent sum paid late on 25 January 2024. The unauthorised deductions claim, relating to 11 days' work in June 2022, was held to be within the Tribunal's jurisdiction despite being presented out of time and succeeded, with the respondent entitled to set off the net sum of £657.88 it had subsequently paid. A separate remedy hearing was directed.