In Person For the v Respondent — 2022

Mr Pereira worked for Sainsbury's as a trading assistant from 22 August 2020 until his dismissal on 14 January 2021. He presented claims of unfair dismissal and race discrimination on 10 March 2021, but the tribunal held that the unfair dismissal claim was outside its jurisdiction because he had less than two years' service, so the case proceeded only as a race discrimination claim. The tribunal heard evidence from the claimant, Mr Limbu and Mr Gami, and applied sections 13, 26 and 136 of the Equality Act 2010, with Igen v Wong referenced for the direct discrimination test.

On the factual allegations, the tribunal accepted that Mr Limbu contacted the claimant during November and December 2020 to give instructions about duties and shift information, but found this was part of Mr Limbu's practice with employees he managed and was not different treatment. It accepted that the claimant found the calls stressful, but found no evidence that the conduct was related to race. The tribunal rejected the allegations that Mr Limbu said he could dismiss the claimant whenever he wanted and that he referred to the claimant as you Indians.

The tribunal also rejected the claimant's account of the 3 January 2021 meeting to the extent that it alleged a racist comment. It found that Mr Limbu did not say bloody Indian or anything similar, and accepted the contemporaneous account that the claimant was angry and swearing during the meeting. The tribunal found that Mr Limbu suspended the claimant because of that behaviour, and that Mr Gami dismissed him on 14 January 2021 because he considered gross misconduct had been proved on the evidence before him.

Looking at the alleged acts cumulatively, the tribunal found that the claimant had not shown facts from which race discrimination could be inferred. It therefore dismissed the direct race discrimination and harassment complaints. No remedy or award was made.