Case 2418127/2020 · Employment Tribunal
Mr C Stafford v Public Urban Bars Ltd — 2022
- Case reference
- 2418127/2020
- Decision date
- 13 May 2022
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Horne Members
- Venue
- Liverpool
- Panel members
- Ms F Crane, Mr A Wells
Parties
2 namedClaimant
Mr C Stafford
Respondent
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe tribunal at Liverpool, sitting before Employment Judge Horne with Ms F Crane and Mr A Wells, gave a unanimous judgment. It found that the respondent harassed Mr C Stafford on 31 August 2020 in relation to sexual orientation when an employee made gestures of a sexual nature and asked whether he wanted to participate in a sex act.
It also found harassment in relation to sexual orientation on 4 September 2020 and 2 October 2020, when the same employee made limp-wristed gestures. The tribunal did not determine whether the gestures were intentional, but found that the claimant reasonably perceived them as having the effect of violating his dignity.
The tribunal found no harassment on 9 October 2020, whether by that employee or by a member of the respondent's door staff. It further found no direct discrimination on 9 October 2020 and no direct discrimination in the way the respondent's Operations Director responded to the claimant's complaints.
As to the earlier direct discrimination allegations, the tribunal said it did not determine whether the respondent directly discriminated on 31 August 2020, 4 September 2020, or 2 October 2020 because that treatment had already been found to be harassment and therefore could not amount to a detriment for the purposes of section 39 of the Equality Act 2010. No monetary remedy is recorded in the judgment extract.
Claims and outcomes
6 findings recordedThis case has mixed outcomes under at least one legal claim type. A tribunal can uphold some allegations and dismiss others under the same legal head, so rows below may represent separate issues or allegation groups from the judgment.
| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harassment | On 31 August 2020, an employee of the respondent made gestures of a sexual nature and asked the claimant if he wanted to participate in a sex act. | Upheld | Sexual orientation | — |
| Harassment | On 4 September 2020 and 2 October 2020, the same employee made limp-wristed gestures to the claimant. The tribunal did not determine whether the gestures were intentional, but found that the claimant reasonably perceived them to have the effect of violating his dignity. | Upheld | Sexual orientation | — |
| Harassment | On 9 October 2020, the tribunal found that the respondent did not harass the claimant, whether by the conduct of that employee or by the conduct of a member of the respondent's door staff. | Dismissed | Sexual orientation | — |
| Sexual orientation discrimination | The tribunal did not determine separate direct discrimination on 31 August 2020, 4 September 2020, or 2 October 2020 because the same treatment was already found to be harassment and could not therefore amount to a detriment within section 39 of the Equality Act 2010. | Dismissed | Sexual orientation | — |
| Sexual orientation discrimination | The tribunal found that the respondent did not directly discriminate against the claimant on 9 October 2020. |
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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