Mr J Daniel v Lidl Great Britain Limited — 2024

Mr Daniel, who was employed by Lidl Great Britain Limited as a warehouse operative from 7 December 2022, alleged repeated race-related threats and insults by James Flawn and Jason Gillespie, together with destruction of overtime records and non-payment of 50 hours overtime. The Tribunal heard and rejected the respondent's application to strike out the claims, found they were brought in time, and then heard evidence from the parties' witnesses and the claimant's grievance material.

On the discrimination and harassment claims, the Tribunal applied the section 13 Equality Act 2010 approach, including the burden of proof under section 136, and the section 26 harassment definition. It preferred the respondent's evidence where there was conflict, found the claimant was not a particularly credible witness of fact, and noted the absence of corroborating witness evidence, documents, or specific payroll evidence supporting his account. It also found that the pleaded incidents could not have occurred as alleged because the records showed that Mr Flawn or Mr Gillespie were not on shift, or the claimant was not at work, on the relevant dates.

The Tribunal also rejected the allegation that Mr Flawn destroyed overtime details. It accepted the respondent's evidence that employees were paid automatically by reference to clock-in and clock-out times, that only payroll could amend the system, and that any change required a signed Working Time correction form. The claimant did not show that such a form had been used against him, and the Tribunal noted that he had in fact been paid 22.73 hours overtime by the end of December 2022.

The overtime claim for 50 hours unpaid work also failed. The Tribunal found that the claimant had not produced evidence that he worked the overtime claimed, had not identified specific dates, and had not suggested that he worked without clocking in or after clocking out. All three claims were therefore dismissed, with no monetary award.