Mr M French v Fenn Wright — 2019

Mr French brought claims of unfair dismissal, sex discrimination and breach of contract. The unfair dismissal claim had already been struck out because he did not have two years' service, and the breach of contract claim was later withdrawn. At the preliminary hearing, any harassment and victimisation allegations in the ET1 were withdrawn and dismissed on withdrawal, leaving the sex discrimination complaint for determination.

The tribunal found that Mr French started work as a Senior Accounts Assistant on 15 January 2018 and was the only man in the accounts team. It accepted that he was given training and repeated feedback, but also found that his work remained inaccurate, slow and not in line with the respondent's procedures. On 11 April 2018 he was told he was being made redundant because of a restructuring linked to an acquisition, but the tribunal found there was no redundancy situation and that the real reason for dismissal was poor performance. It also found that Ms Jones gave him a dishonest open reference, which she said was done for misguided reasons.

On the sex discrimination claim, the tribunal accepted there were facts capable of shifting the burden of proof under Equality Act 2010 s.136: Mr French was the only man in the accounts team, his female colleagues were not dismissed, no fair procedure was followed, the stated redundancy reason was false, and the open reference was dishonest. Applying the authorities cited in the judgment, including Igen, Nagarajan and Onu, the tribunal concluded that the respondent had shown that gender played no part whatsoever in the dismissal. It found the dismissal was based purely on poor performance, so the sex discrimination complaint was dismissed.