Ms M Acheampong v Supporting Young Futures — 2022

Ms M Acheampong brought claims of direct race discrimination, race-related harassment and victimisation against Supporting Young Futures Limited. The tribunal accepted that some of the factual incidents complained of happened, including comments by Selena Broomes and Peter Brown, but found that most of the pleaded allegations were either unsupported by evidence, not shown to be because of race, or not shown to amount to a detriment.

On the direct discrimination allegations, the tribunal rejected the complaints about the toilet comment, the alleged IT incident, the handling of complaints about Ms Broomes, the removal of letters, the handling of complaints about Mr Henry, the complaint said to have been raised by a service user, the refusal of Level 5 training support, the decision to appoint Darren Henry to senior support worker, and the withdrawal of extra shifts. The tribunal accepted Mr Brown’s evidence that Mr Henry was a more senior employee with supervisory or managerial responsibilities, that the claimant did not pursue the suggested discussion with his supervisor about Level 5 training, and that the extra shifts were distributed on a fair basis to maintain bank workers’ allegiance.

On harassment, the tribunal found that Peter Brown’s mid-February 2020 comment that the resident who killed a rat “probably eats them back home” was made and was related to race. The tribunal accepted that the claimant was offended and considered it reasonable for him to be offended. However, the tribunal held that this was a single act occurring in mid-February 2020, which was outside the agreed time limit, and it refused to extend time on a just and equitable basis because the claimant had declined to engage with the Peninsula grievance process. On victimisation, the tribunal held that the 3 March 2020 email about Mr Henry removing letters was not a protected act because it did not expressly or implicitly complain of race discrimination.

The only allegation materially made out on the facts was therefore the mid-February 2020 harassment incident, but all claims were dismissed because that incident was out of time and the tribunal would not extend time. No remedy was awarded.