Miss J Panahian-Jand v Barts Health NHS Trust and 1 other — 2021

The Claimant, a paediatric bank nurse, raised concerns with her ward manager about alleged race discrimination in allocation of work, racial divisions or cliques on the ward, and bullying. The Tribunal found these verbal complaints were protected acts under the Equality Act and also protected disclosures: they contained information, related to the Public Sector Equality Duty, and were reasonably believed by the Claimant to be in the public interest.

The Tribunal found the First Respondent restricted the Claimant from Acorn Ward, which in practice restricted her from Whipps Cross Hospital. It found the restriction was not justified by the evidence then available, was rare for the Trust, and was materially influenced by the fact that she had made race discrimination allegations. It also found the delay in progressing and communicating the outcome of the misconduct investigation was victimisation and protected disclosure detriment. Miss Hook's blocking of the Claimant's path in the car park was also found to be a detriment because of the protected acts and disclosures.

Other pleaded matters were not upheld as detriments or were not found to be caused by the protected acts. The Tribunal did not find that alleged defamatory or slanderous comments had damaged the Claimant's reputation, and it did not find the failure to investigate the car park incident was because of the protected acts. It made a recommendation that the restriction on working at Acorn Ward and Whipps Cross Hospital be removed, and awarded financial loss, injury to feelings, ACAS uplift and interest.