Miss Rahma Smith v Senior UK Limited (trading as Senior Aerospace Thermal Engineering) — 2025

The tribunal dismissed the complaints of harassment related to sex, automatic unfair dismissal, victimisation, direct religious discrimination and notice pay. It recorded concerns about the reliability and consistency of the claimant's evidence, including delay in raising some matters, omissions from her witness statement and changes in her account during the hearing.

On automatic unfair dismissal, the tribunal found that none of the communications relied on were qualifying protected disclosures. On victimisation, although the respondent conceded that the claimant had done a protected act and that dismissal was a detriment, the tribunal accepted Mr Pilborough's evidence that the dismissal was because the respondent determined she had committed gross misconduct.

On direct religious discrimination, the tribunal found that the claimant had not established facts from which it could conclude that dismissal was because of religion, including because Mr Pilborough did not know her religion and the proposed comparators were materially different. It also found that, even if the burden had shifted, the reason for dismissal was the respondent's belief that the claimant had breached its conduct policy and committed gross misconduct.