Mrs H Grant v Buffery & Co. Ltd — 2024

The claim was for direct sex discrimination. The claimant, a woman with child caring responsibilities, alleged less favourable treatment including comments about combining work with children, a review meeting, dismissal, and correspondence after dismissal.

The tribunal found that two comments made by Ms Thompson about the claimant's child caring responsibilities and the claimant's dismissal were less favourable treatment because of sex and amounted to detriments. It drew inferences from the respondent's focus on how the claimant would manage work and child caring responsibilities, the timing of the review meeting before dismissal, and inconsistencies in the respondent's explanations.

The tribunal concluded that the respondent had not shown that the comments and dismissal were for a reason other than sex. The direct sex discrimination complaint was therefore well-founded and succeeded, with remedy to be determined at a separate hearing.