Mr T Roche and Others (see the attached schedule) v Terence Kwok — 2022

The claimants were employees of Tink Labs Europe Limited in London. On 2 July 2019 the respondent told staff in a conference call that the corporate group was being restructured and that their employment would end on 1 August 2019, and termination letters were issued the same day. The tribunal found there had been no consultation before the terminations, and that in mid-July some claimants were told they would transfer to G.S. Holdings, but that proved untrue.

The claimants alleged that they had not been paid because about £671,000 had been removed from the company's bank account and that Mr Yuen had made a sarcastic comment about the missing money. The tribunal did not accept those allegations in full. It found there was insufficient evidence that £670k had been removed or that the comment was made, and it was not satisfied that the claimants had proved the asserted fraudulent transfer or its use to pay Hong Kong staff.

By the end of the hearing the claimants confirmed that only harassment related to race and direct discrimination because of race were pursued; the other claims were withdrawn. Applying sections 26 and 13 of the Equality Act 2010 and the burden of proof approach in the authorities cited, the tribunal held that the facts found were not enough to infer that the termination decision, the lack of consultation, or the false transfer message were related to race or because of race. The facts that the respondent and Mr Yuen were from Hong Kong, and that the group included a Hong Kong subsidiary, were held to be insufficient. The claims were therefore dismissed and no award was made.