Solomon Demba v Care UK Clinical Services Ltd — 2023

Mr Demba, a registered nurse, accepted a conditional offer for a senior post with Care UK Clinical Services Ltd. The tribunal found the arrangement never became a contract of employment because the offer remained subject to references and DBS clearance, and those conditions were not satisfied. It accepted that there had been delays and confusion in the processing of the offer, including disputed attempts to arrange meetings in August 2019 and the claimant's grievance on 27 August 2019, followed by withdrawal of the offer on 17 September 2019.

The direct race discrimination claims were dismissed. The tribunal accepted that Mr O'Leary and Ms Kingsmill had concerns about references and the DBS check, but found nothing to show that the delay, the withdrawal of the offer, or the handling of the matter was because of race. It said the documentation was scant and difficult to follow, but the information available to Ms Knight led her to withdraw the offer because she understood Mr Demba had not been in contact. The tribunal also rejected the further race discrimination claim based on the failure to investigate the grievance, finding that the failure was incompetent but not race-related.

The victimisation claim was also dismissed. The tribunal accepted that the grievance was a protected act and that it had in effect been ignored, but it found no evidence that the offer was withdrawn because of the grievance. It said the grievance was referred to in the email chain, but Ms Knight's decision was not made for that reason.

Age discrimination was withdrawn at the start of the hearing. The judgment records an age-related harassment allegation based on an alleged comment that the respondent would be more likely to accept a younger person, but the extempore reasons do not separately analyse that allegation; the final order dismissed the remaining claim in full.