Ms C A Cheptanariu v Care UK Community Partnerships Limited — 2023

The claimant, who is Romanian, worked as a hostess at the respondent's care home. The tribunal accepted much of her account of Ms Drawbridge's conduct, including disrespectful behaviour, refusing to call her by name, calling her the worst hostess, and saying she was 'nothing'. It found some of that conduct went beyond rudeness and amounted to harassment in a general sense, but not harassment related to race.

The tribunal found no facts from which it could conclude that Ms Drawbridge's conduct was related to the claimant being Romanian, or that she was treated less favourably because of race. The evidence indicated that Ms Drawbridge behaved disrespectfully towards employees of a range of backgrounds, and the comments complained of were general rather than connected to nationality or race.

The tribunal also found that the respondent did not fail to take the claimant's complaints seriously or disregard them. The respondent met with her, progressed a formal grievance, partially upheld it, issued a letter of concern to Ms Drawbridge, considered an appeal, and took steps to avoid the claimant working with Ms Drawbridge. The complaint about access to the grievance procedure failed as a direct discrimination claim because all employees accessed the policy in the same way, and no indirect discrimination claim was before the tribunal.