Mr Gary Forrester v Kingdom Services Group Limited — 2022

The Tribunal dismissed the direct race discrimination claim. It found that Mr Kaser, one of the named comparators, was also dismissed for his involvement in the WhatsApp messages. It accepted that Ms Atif received a lesser sanction, but found material differences because she had less responsibility for the team and WhatsApp group and showed remorse, so she was not an appropriate comparator. The Tribunal concluded the Claimant had not established less favourable treatment because of race.

The Tribunal dismissed the harassment related to race claim. It did not find that Mr Roberts gave the alleged instruction to target ethnic minorities, Black people or Asian people for fixed penalty notices, and found the allegation lacking in credibility after considering the competing evidence and the contemporaneous WhatsApp material.

On protected disclosures, the Tribunal accepted that the Claimant made qualifying protected disclosures to Mr Roberts on 5 October 2020 and 30 October 2020 about Street Scene dumping and fly tipping. It did not find that he raised double billing concerns to Mr Roberts or Ms Kelly, and it did not find that the 11, 12 and 13 November 2020 communications stating that he would whistleblow disclosed information amounting to protected disclosures.

The Tribunal dismissed the protected disclosure detriment and automatic unfair dismissal claims. It found that the disciplinary action arose from the WhatsApp messages and was not influenced by the protected disclosures about Street Scene. It found that the reason for dismissal was the WhatsApp messages, and that Mr Russell had no detail of the earlier protected disclosures or of what the Claimant was threatening to raise by whistleblowing.