(1) Mrs R. Khanom (2) Mr. A. Hoque (3) Ms. M. A. Rubi v London Borough of Tower Hamlets and 1 other — 2021

The claimants were agency workers providing transport services to the first respondent. The first and third claimants' placements were ended after a complaint from a school about how they handled an incident involving a pupil who had vomited on a bus. The tribunal accepted the respondent's evidence that there was no third passenger assistant on the bus and that the driver was not an appropriate comparator because his role and responsibilities were different.

The tribunal found that agency workers were not entitled to the respondent's employee disciplinary, appeal or grievance procedures, and that the absence of those procedures did not support the race discrimination claims. It found that the first and third claimants had been given an opportunity to explain what had happened and that the respondent had rational reasons for deciding not to continue using their services. It also found that a hypothetical agency worker not of Bangladeshi nationality in the same circumstances would have been treated in the same way.

For the second claimant, the tribunal accepted the respondent's evidence that his placement was ended because of his conduct towards a manager on 25 November 2019. It rejected his account that he had been treated in the way alleged and found that a hypothetical comparator acting in the same way would also have had the agency relationship terminated. The tribunal concluded that there were no facts from which it could find direct race discrimination and that the harassment complaints were not made out, including because the conduct relied on was not related to race or it was not reasonable for it to have the alleged effect.