Ms S Adan v Cardiff County Council — 2021

Ms S Adan brought claims after Cardiff County Council, through Ms Lisa Wood, decided not to interview her for an agency social work post in October 2020. The emails referred to by the tribunal showed confusion with another person in some of the correspondence, and Ms Wood described the claimant as someone from her earlier time managing the Llandough Hospital team. The tribunal accepted that the claimant had previously worked at Llandough and that there had been a 2015 overpayment issue in the background, involving gross pay of £3,390.95 and net pay of £2,155.30, but it found that those matters were part of Ms Wood's reasoning rather than evidence of race or religion discrimination.

The tribunal found that Ms Wood's decision not to interview the claimant was based on her view of the claimant's integrity in relation to the 2015 overpayment and on the skill set needed for the short-term agency roles that were available in October 2020. It accepted Ms Wood's evidence that the short-term funding required experienced candidates who could start quickly, and that Ms Wood had also made decisions about other applicants on the basis of her recollection of their previous work. The tribunal did not accept that the claimant had been singled out because she was a woman of colour or because she wore a hijab.

Applying section 13 Equality Act 2010 and the burden of proof approach discussed in Royal Mail Group Ltd v Efobi, together with sections 23, 39 and 136 of the Equality Act 2010, the tribunal held that the claimant had not shown facts from which it could infer discrimination and that, in any event, the respondent had explained the treatment by reference to non-protected reasons. The claim for direct discrimination because of race and/or religion was dismissed. No compensation or other remedy was awarded.