Mr D Robson v NGP UTILITIES Ltd Heard by CVP — 2021

The tribunal found that Mr Robson worked for NGP Utilities Ltd from 7 January 2019 to 14 June 2019 in the Leeds office, where the culture was described in the reasons as involving daily racist, homophobic and antisemitic language. It accepted that his equal opportunities form recording that he was a gay man was left accessible to other employees on his first day, and that the office environment quickly became known to him through remarks such as Mr Manterfield's comment that there was "a fucking bender in the office".

On the harassment claim, the tribunal accepted Mr Robson's evidence about the pleaded incidents involving Mr Price, Mr Peat and Mr Dixon, including comments that two men having sex was "unnatural and not right", remarks about "Gay Pride" and "Straight Pride", the "mince a bit quicker" comment, jokes in the office WhatsApp group, the sweets incident, and Mr Dixon shouting "oi ya fucking faggot". It found all of those incidents amounted to unwanted conduct related to sexual orientation that had the purpose or effect of violating dignity and creating a degrading and humiliating environment. The respondent's statutory defence failed because its equality policies were found to be ineffective and not properly implemented, with no effective training, investigation or disciplinary response.

On the disability complaint, the tribunal accepted that Mr Robson was disabled by reason of dyslexia and that the respondent had knowledge of both the disability and the substantial disadvantage on 25 March 2019 when he supplied his diagnostic assessment. It found the respondent applied a call-time target of three hours per day, including interim timed targets, which placed him at a substantial disadvantage because he needed longer to complete associated administrative tasks. Although the overall target was later reduced to 2.5 hours, the tribunal found that adjustment was ineffective because the interim targets were not adjusted and the managers continued to pressure and reprimand him while he was visibly struggling.

The tribunal held that the cumulative sexual orientation harassment and disability discrimination amounted to a repudiatory breach of the implied term of trust and confidence, and that Mr Robson resigned in response to that breach on 14 June 2019, so his constructive dismissal claim succeeded. It also upheld the victimisation claim, finding that the solicitor's letter of 26 July 2019 contained an unjustified threat about the High Court injunction and was sent, at least in significant part, because Mr High and the respondent did not want the harassment allegations brought before the Employment Tribunal.

On remedy, the tribunal rejected the claim for commission or other pecuniary loss, finding that Mr Robson had not proved he would have earned the commission claimed and noting that his salary with A2L Energy was higher than with the respondent. It awarded £20,800 for injury to feelings and £10,000 for aggravated damages, with interest of £5,907, making a total award of £36,707. It also made a separate financial penalty order of £18,353.50 to the Secretary of State under s.12A Employment Tribunals Act 1996 because of the aggravating features it identified in the respondent's conduct and conduct of the proceedings.