Mrs Mildred Ononiwu v Anchor Hanover Group — 2020

The claimant brought claims of direct race discrimination, harassment related to race, unpaid holiday pay and unauthorised deductions from wages. The tribunal found that the claimant had not proved that the alleged race-related remarks were made, and accepted that requests to stop shouting were made because the claimant had raised her voice rather than because of race.

On the food and staffing allegations, the tribunal found that the rules on eating applied to all staff and that there was no credible evidence that white staff were treated differently after the rule change. It also found that Linwood was understaffed at times, but that both black and white staff experienced reduced staffing, and that the claimant had access to a floating staff member and a team leader on the relevant days.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant was dismissed because of allegations concerning the movement of a resident in a wheelchair, not because of race. It expressed concern about aspects of the disciplinary approach and considered dismissal potentially harsh, but noted that unfair dismissal was not the claim before it and found no facts from which it could conclude that race was the reason for dismissal.

The holiday pay and wages claims were also dismissed. The tribunal found the claimant had been paid during suspension, had received payment for her accrued holiday balance on termination, had the disputed 7 hours of annual leave restored, and had been paid £65.80 for the training day back pay.