Mr M Akromah v Praxis Care — 2023

Mr M Akromah worked for Praxis Care as a part-time night support worker from 1 July 2021 until 22 February 2022. He was not dismissed; his probation was extended and his employment ended when he did not pass the extended probationary period. The claim before the tribunal was a race discrimination complaint arising from that probation decision and related criticism of his work. In his material, he accepted that he had taken unauthorised leave between 4 and 14 February 2022, that his mandatory workbook was only around 70% complete by the end of probation, and that he had not followed respondent procedure for the leave.

The tribunal applied the strike-out jurisdiction under Rule 37(1)(a) and noted the general caution required in discrimination cases, referring to the authorities it cited. It found this was one of the exceptional cases where the complaint was too thin and non-specific to proceed. The claimant could not identify any particular incident, conversation, or racist language that would link his race to the decision not to pass his probation. The judge accepted that the claimant suggested he was treated differently because he was black Ghanaian, but held that he could offer no facts from which race discrimination could reasonably be inferred.

The tribunal also accepted the respondent's contemporaneous explanation for the probation outcome: the unauthorised leave, the incomplete workbook, and the claimant's admitted difficulties with work instructions. Where the claimant suggested he had received less help with the workbook, he also said this may have been because he worked nights and support staff were not around, which the tribunal treated as a non-racial explanation. The whole race discrimination complaint was therefore struck out, and no monetary award was made, notwithstanding the claimant's schedule of loss seeking £906,800 before pension losses.