Mr K Williams v Essex Cares Limited — 2022

Mr K Williams brought a claim of direct race discrimination against Essex Cares Ltd arising from alleged incidents on 19 September 2019, 17 January 2020, 7 February 2020, 10 February 2020 and 9 April 2020. The tribunal found that the alleged racist remarks by Sam Gooch and Billy Turner were not made, that the alleged remark by Trudi Foster about being an immigrant and always moaning was not made, and that the alleged refusal to adjourn the 9 April 2020 meeting so the claimant could take medication did not happen.

On the work-allocation evidence, the tribunal accepted that the claimant sometimes had a heavy workload, but found there was no significant overall difference between his allocations and those of other drivers. It found that route changes were made because of sickness absence, that the claimant was not singled out for disproportionately more work, and that the complaints about his phone were systemic and not unique to him. The tribunal also accepted that the 5 December 2019 grievance meeting took place and rejected the claimant's account that the managers were laughing at him or mocking him because he was black.

The tribunal accepted the contemporaneous notes of the 9 April 2020 meeting and found that Barbara Harris and Trudi Foster were asking the claimant to explain his concerns about race discrimination, workload and his knee injury. It found that he did not identify racist remarks in that meeting and that the tribunal's own recording of the later 14 April 2020 meeting with Billy Turner showed Mr Turner trying to assist with lighter duties rather than acting because of race. Applying the direct discrimination framework under sections 13, 23, 39 and 136 of the Equality Act 2010, and the comparator and burden-of-proof authorities it cited, the tribunal held that there was no evidence from which less favourable treatment because of race could be inferred. The claims were dismissed and no remedy was awarded.