Mr R Beaton, Counsel For the v Respondent — 2022

The claimant, a black agency contract worker in Home Ownership Services, brought direct race discrimination and harassment complaints against London Borough of Southwark. The tribunal set out the Equality Act 2010 provisions on direct discrimination, harassment and burden of proof, and referred to MacDonald v Advocate General for Scotland, Igen v Wong, Laing v Manchester City Council, Shamoon v Chief Constable of the RUC and Madarassy v Nomura International PLC.

On the direct discrimination allegations, the tribunal accepted the respondent's evidence that it had genuine concerns about attendance, timesheets and the use of its processes, and it found those concerns to be race-neutral. It rejected the claimant's allegations about the 29 June 2018 meeting, the lift encounter, alleged fraud concerns about face-to-face appointments, support on the Mrs K matter, Zurich contact details, the Christmas card glitter incident, the car-hire and £30 assessment fee issue, ATRACS authorisation, the 22 February 2019 performance meeting, non-payment, the private office conversation, DC's handling of the complaint, the permanent recruitment timetable, shortlisting, handover of ID and locker key, the leaving card, morning greetings, praise and Staffino feedback, termination notice, the contract end date, the internal complaint handling and the absence of feedback. In each instance, the tribunal either did not accept the claimant's account, found no less favourable treatment, or found an explanation unrelated to race.

On harassment, the tribunal held that the pleaded incidents said to amount to unwanted conduct related to race also failed. It found that, where conduct occurred, it was not related to race. The tribunal said many of the allegations were based on the claimant's perception rather than proved facts, that there were alternative plausible explanations for the respondent's actions, and that there was no evidence of collusion or a discriminatory culture. The unanimous judgment was that the direct race discrimination and harassment claims failed and were dismissed.