Ms C. Southgate v Toni & Guy (Romford) Ltd — 2020

Ms C Southgate, a gay apprentice hairdresser, brought claims arising from her employment at the Romford salon from 13 November 2018. Before the hearing she withdrew her claims for holiday pay/expenses and notice pay, and those claims were dismissed on withdrawal. The remaining claims were for direct discrimination and harassment related to sexual orientation.

The tribunal rejected the harassment allegations. It did not accept that Ms Scaddan pressured the Claimant to come out, made the alleged comments about her clothes, laughed at her in the way alleged, or said that her mannerisms showed she was gay. The tribunal found the Claimant's evidence inconsistent and vague on important points, and it accepted Ms Scaddan's evidence that she kept the Claimant's sexuality confidential and behaved supportively when the Claimant confided in her.

The direct discrimination allegations also failed. The tribunal found that Ms Cowlbeck did not know the Claimant was gay until these proceedings were issued, so criticism about models, the till incident, the discussion about whether hairdressing was the right career, and the decision to end the apprenticeship could not have been because of sexual orientation. Where the tribunal accepted that the Claimant had made a refund error and that Ms Cowlbeck later lost confidence in her progress, it found those matters were linked to the mistake and concerns about commitment, not to sexual orientation.

No monetary award was made. The tribunal added that, although no unfair dismissal claim was before it, it would have had serious concerns about the fairness of the dismissal if such a claim had been made.