in person For the v Respondent — 2020

The claimant brought complaints of unfair dismissal, race discrimination and discrimination because of religion or belief. The tribunal recorded that the unfair dismissal complaint had already been dismissed on 26 March 2019 because the claimant did not have two years' service, so it was outside the tribunal's jurisdiction. It also held that the religion or belief complaints about the baseball cap and the travel-to-work questions were presented out of time, but it extended time on a just and equitable basis.

On the merits of the religion or belief complaints, the tribunal found that Ms A did ask the claimant to remove his baseball cap because CCTV could not see his face, but that he was the only person wearing a cap who was asked to do so. It accepted that other employees wore caps and were not told to remove them, and it concluded that the difference in treatment was because of the claimant's religion or belief. It reached the same conclusion about the repeated questions concerning why he travelled so far to work, finding no adequate explanation for why he alone was asked that question and treating the evidence as sufficient to infer discrimination.

The race discrimination complaints were dismissed. The tribunal accepted that the claimant was moved from runner to picker on 9 January 2018, but it found that the evidence did not establish that the selection for that move was because of race. It noted that one white British worker was also moved, that two white British runners were not moved, and that the respondent had not given a clear explanation for the selection process, but it did not consider the evidence enough to permit an inference of race discrimination.

The tribunal also dismissed the race complaint about the termination of the assignment on 8 February 2018. It found that the claimant's assignment ended after Johnson and Johnson raised concerns about absences, performance and attitude, and that the same result would have followed for a worker of any race in the same position. No compensation was fixed in this decision. The tribunal listed a separate one-day remedy hearing for 8 July 2020 and made case management orders for disclosure and witness evidence for that hearing.