Mr. L. Stafford First v PSA Retail UK Limited Second Respondent: Go Motor Retailing Limited — 2023

The tribunal first determined that PSA Retail UK Limited was the claimant's employer and dismissed Go Motor Retailing Limited from the proceedings. The claimant had been employed from 14 February 2019, became a General Sales Manager in August 2019, and was dismissed on 16 November 2020 after the Heathrow site redundancy process that began in October 2020.

On the detriment complaint under ss.47-48 ERA 1996, the tribunal found that Tim Pickering did not ignore, ostracise, or stop communicating with the claimant after he became an employee representative. Because the alleged conduct was not proved, the detriment complaint failed.

On direct race discrimination, the tribunal accepted that the claimant was mixed race and that the remarks "You don't look like one to me" and "coffee and cream" were made and were related to race. It also found that the comments were unwanted and had the effect of violating dignity and creating an intimidating and hostile environment, but the claim was outside the s.123 Equality Act time limit and it was not just and equitable to extend time.

The tribunal also considered the failure to appoint the claimant to the GM (Hayes) role and the Junior Auditor role. It accepted that the burden of proof shifted for the GM (Hayes) decision because the process should have been fairer, but found that Tim Pickering's reason was that he regarded the role as a like-for-like alternative for Lawrence Edwards and did not act because of race. For the Junior Auditor role, the tribunal found that Sharon McLean had a non-discriminatory reason: she was not satisfied that the claimant had sufficient Kerridge experience. The race discrimination complaint was therefore dismissed.