Ms. K Garcia v Fenwick Limited — 2020

The tribunal considered six factual allegations arising from the claimant's unsuccessful application for a Sales Consultant role and the later grievance process. It found that the claimant, a Black British employee of Caribbean descent, had genuinely believed she had been discriminated against and had been distressed by the events, but that the contemporaneous documents and witness evidence did not support her case that she had been treated less favourably because of race.

On direct discrimination, the tribunal found no less favourable treatment because of race in the interview questions, the feedback meeting, the grievance interviews, the training issue, or the scope of the grievance investigation. It found that some matters alleged in tribunal had been misunderstood or were inconsistent with the claimant's earlier grievance account, and that comparators in managerial roles were not in a comparable position to the claimant.

On harassment, the tribunal held that none of the incidents relied on amounted to conduct that was intimidating, hostile, degrading or offensive related to race. On victimisation, it accepted that the claimant's July 2018 discussion with Mr O'Neill was a protected act, but found that the relevant managers did not know about it at the material time and therefore could not have acted because of it. All claims were dismissed.