Mr Timothy Bettney v Ethiopian Airlines Group Heard: Manchester Employment Tribunal — 2025

The Tribunal, sitting as a panel in Manchester before Employment Judge G Tobin with Mr B Rowen and Dr B Tirohl, unanimously found that the claimant, who had worked for the respondent for almost 19 years as a Traffic Sales Manager at Manchester airport, succeeded on 4 of 5 allegations of direct race discrimination under s13 Equality Act 2010 and on his claim of indirect race discrimination under s19 Equality Act 2010. The Tribunal also found he was constructively unfairly dismissed pursuant to s95(1)(c) Employment Rights Act 1996.

On the discrimination claims, the Tribunal accepted matters including exclusion from meetings in Addis Ababa, the holding of meetings in Amharic which the claimant did not speak, denial of a company car given to other managers, and a differential leave and sick-leave regime. The Tribunal identified a provision, criterion or practice contained in the respondent's policy manual (section 7.3.4.4) restricting Area Manager, TSM and Station Manager appointments outside Africa to those from Africa absent approved exception, which the Tribunal found discriminatory in relation to race.

On constructive dismissal, the Tribunal held that the cumulative conduct, including the uncertainty following expiry of the claimant's fixed-term appointment, the unlawful discrimination found, long hours, the removal of his role and its allocation to a colleague from Oman, and what the Tribunal described as a 'crass' rejection of his grievance, amounted to fundamental breaches of contract. The grievance outcome was treated as the 'last straw'. The Tribunal found the claimant had not affirmed the contract by resigning approximately one month after the grievance outcome. Remedy was reserved to a later stage.