Mr J Masele v Sodexo Limited CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Employment Tribunal Procedure Rules 2024 Under the provisions of — 2025

At Manchester on 9, 10 and 11 April 2025, Employment Judge Anderson, sitting with Mr D Wilson and Mr B McCaughey, heard Mr J Masele's claims against Sodexo Limited for direct race discrimination and unlawful deduction from wages. The race discrimination complaint was confined to an alleged detriment on or around 1 October 2023, when the claimant said he had been downgraded from PCO to OSO.

Applying s.13, s.23 and s.136 Equality Act 2010, and citing Madarassy v Nomura PLC and Bahl v The Law Society, the tribunal held that it could not draw an inference of race discrimination. It found that around September/October 2023 the claimant was not fit for work as a PCO, or at least the respondent did not have sufficient information to conclude that he was fit, and accepted that the respondent wanted him to work as a PCO because of a shortage of prison officers. The tribunal concluded that the respondent's approach was the product of poor thought processes rather than race, found no racial element conscious or subconscious, and rejected the comparator evidence, including reliance on Mr AT, because the comparators were not in materially similar situations.

The unlawful deduction claim succeeded. Relying on s.13 Employment Rights Act 1996 and discussing Hogg v Dover College, Jackson v The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, Smith v Trafford Housing Trust and Rigby v Ferodo Ltd, the tribunal rejected the respondent's submission that the claimant's employment had ended and restarted on new terms. It found that the point about dismissal was not pleaded, that the respondent had made a unilateral variation, and that the claimant had chosen the 'stand and sue' route. The tribunal held that paying less than the express contractual pay term from 1 October 2023 was an unauthorised deduction and awarded the claimant the gross sum of £6,549.83, based on the respondent's calculations, which were not contradicted by the claimant.