In person, assisted by Mr K Abere, friend For the v Respondent — 2020

The tribunal found the claimant was dismissed for conduct, principally an allegation of sleeping at work while supporting a person supported by the respondent, in the context of alleged failure to support service users and a live final written warning. It accepted that conduct was a potentially fair reason, but found the respondent did not conduct a reasonable enquiry or reach a conclusion within the range of reasonable responses, particularly because the claimant's explanation about medication was not tested before dismissal and a related medication/risk assessment point was not put to her.

The wrongful dismissal claim succeeded because the tribunal was not satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the claimant had committed gross misconduct by sleeping at work so as to justify summary dismissal. The tribunal accepted that two protected disclosures had been made, but dismissed the whistleblowing claims because it found no evidential link between those disclosures and the dismissal, the DBS information, or the disciplinary process.

The direct race discrimination complaints were dismissed. The tribunal found the evidence did not support an inference that race caused the matters complained of, including the disciplinary action, work allocation issues, workplace friction, or dismissal. It also rejected victimisation claims, including because dismissal was not related to the June 2017 allegation of racism and the respondent was not shown to have referred the claimant to DBS.

The tribunal upheld a limited race-related harassment claim arising from an internal Ask HR entry in which the claimant was described as 'quick to play the race card'. It found the wording was unwanted conduct related to race and violated the claimant's dignity, while also finding that the purpose of the entry was to record a management concern and that it did not create a hostile environment.