Mr J Singh v Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited — 2020

The claimant was employed as a warehouse operative on a temporary fixed term contract from 5 November 2018 to 6 January 2019. The tribunal found that he knew the role was temporary, although he may have been led to believe it was likely to become permanent. It accepted the respondent's evidence that the sole reason for the termination of employment was the expiry of the fixed term contract and insufficient work for Christmas temporary staff after that period.

For the automatic unfair dismissal complaint, the tribunal found that the claimant did not make the alleged disclosures before 3 January 2019. It accepted that the race discrimination part of the grievance sent on 3 January 2019 was a protected disclosure, but found the health and safety part did not convey facts sufficient to be a qualifying disclosure. The protected disclosure could not have been the principal reason for dismissal because the claimant had already been told on 1 January 2019 that he would not be retained.

For direct race discrimination, the tribunal did not accept the allegations that managers or team leaders ignored the claimant, made the alleged comments about colour or gang, or allocated picks unfairly because of race. It found that picking data showed the claimant had bigger picks than the comparator, Mr Gowers, in seven of the eight weeks of employment. The wages claim was dismissed because there was insufficient evidence that the claimant had not been paid sums due for 1 January 2019 or any other day.