Mr Ali Hassanuddin v Metroline Travel Limited — 2024

The claimant, a bus driver of Asian Pakistani ethnic origin, brought complaints of direct race discrimination and harassment related to race arising from incidents involving another driver, Mr Wozniak, and the respondent's handling of the claimant's complaints and grievances. The Tribunal considered allegations including a can-punching incident, alleged filming, alleged threats to transfer, alleged road blocking, delays in grievance handling, removal from a preference list, and allocation of a Route 90 rota place.

The Tribunal found procedural shortcomings in some grievance handling. In particular, the first grievance took too long, the claimant was not told of a right of appeal, the grievance about the August 2020 road incident was excessively delayed, and Mr Wright should have interviewed Mrs Dawson about the alleged transfer threat. The Tribunal found these shortcomings were not because of the claimant's race. It also found that some alleged factual premises were not made out, including that Mr Wozniak filmed the claimant, that he intentionally blocked the claimant's vehicle, and that Mrs Tkaczyk made the decision to remove the preference list.

On the Route 90 issue, the Tribunal found the burden of proof shifted because the route carried a higher rate of pay and was allocated to another driver, but accepted the respondent's explanation that routes were allocated on a first-come, first-served basis after union concerns about seniority-based allocation. The Tribunal concluded that all direct race discrimination and harassment complaints failed. It also refused an application to amend the claim to add a later grievance appeal issue, balancing the injustice and hardship to both parties.