Mr Butler, Counsel v Respondent — 2017

The claimant, an admin officer at Eltham Crematorium, brought an associative religious harassment complaint under s.26 of the Equality Act 2010. The tribunal accepted that she had a Muslim family connection and found that at the 8 January 2016 meeting Ms Squires made comments about Muslims and burial arrangements, including words to the effect that residents of Bromley would not want to be buried next to a Muslim and that Muslims move in and take over.

The tribunal found those remarks were made, were unwanted, and amounted to conduct related to religion that violated the claimant's dignity and/or created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. It rejected the respondent's case that Ms Squires was not aiming the comments at the claimant because of her Muslim associations, but held that intention was not required for liability.

The tribunal rejected most of the later allegations on their own facts. It held that the 23 March meeting, the 1 August meeting, the delay and contents of the appeal process, the failure to consider the 1 August incident on appeal, the censored participation point, the missing minutes point, and the confidentiality point were not related to religion. However, it found that the grievance investigation and outcome, viewed as part of the respondent's response to the January incident, did relate to the protected characteristic because the respondent failed to recognise the religious dimension of what had happened.

On timing, the tribunal held that the matters formed a continuing act and, in the alternative, it was just and equitable to extend time because the claimant first used the respondent's internal grievance procedure before bringing the tribunal claim. It also rejected the section 109(4) reasonable steps defence, finding that the respondent had only a short equal opportunities policy and no adequate evidence of harassment guidance or training. The extracted reasons do not record any monetary remedy.