Mr R Magara, Solicitor Advocate For the v Respondent — 2023

Mrs Uwimana was employed by Amicus Trust Limited as a Housing Management Worker. The tribunal found that some, but not all, of her factual allegations were proved. It accepted that comments were made about her hair, that service users asked whether she had been to school, whether she could read and whether there were schools in Africa, and that Mr Kingsbury addressed raised voices but not the inappropriate comments. It also found that someone in the team, most likely Mrs Williams, joked that Mrs Uwimana could not be seen at night. It rejected allegations that Mrs Uwimana had been called the N-word, that Mrs Williams told her to go back where she came from, and that the meeting on 21 May 2021 was disciplinary.

The harassment related to race complaint succeeded in part. The tribunal held that the upheld conduct about Mrs Uwimana's hair, Mr Kingsbury's failure to act over the service users' comments, the night-time visibility comment, and Mrs Williams' comments on 20 May 2021 that Mrs Uwimana was 'fucking paranoid' and that she was bored of her accusations created the proscribed environment and related to race. The direct race discrimination complaint failed because the upheld matters had been found to amount to harassment and were not also direct discrimination.

The harassment related to sex complaint also succeeded. The tribunal found that a service user had made a crude gesture towards Mrs Uwimana on 12 May 2021, that Mrs Williams said he was just being silly and that she should brush it off, and that Mr Muir and Mrs Williams discouraged her from making a formal complaint. It held that this unwanted conduct violated her dignity and created a degrading, humiliating and offensive environment related to sex. The direct sex discrimination complaint failed because the upheld matters were harassment and the alleged 21 May statement that the service user fancied her was not found proved.

The victimisation complaint succeeded in part. The tribunal found that Mrs Uwimana's email of 10 April 2021, her grievance of 17 May 2021 and her concerns raised with Mrs Williams on 20 May 2021 were protected acts. It held that Mrs Williams' 20 May comments that she was 'fucking paranoid' and bored of her accusations were detriments because of protected acts, and that a service user being told Mrs Uwimana had been sacked for being racist was also a detriment caused by the protected acts. Other alleged detriments, including changes to money records, the 21 May meeting, alleged negative body language and alleged joking by Mr Kingsbury, were not upheld.

The disability discrimination complaint was dismissed. The respondent had conceded disability, and the tribunal found that the respondent could reasonably have been expected to know Mrs Uwimana was disabled by PTSD from the pre-employment questionnaire and further enquiries it should have made. The reasonable adjustments claim nevertheless failed because the only PCP relied on was the allegation that her racism or sexism grievances were not investigated properly or at all, which the tribunal treated as a one-off instance relating to Mrs Uwimana rather than a practice or state of affairs capable of amounting to a PCP. Remedy was reserved for a separate remedy hearing, so no award was recorded in this judgment.