Mr de Mello (Counsel) For the v Respondent — 2019

The tribunal heard a sex discrimination claim under section 13 of the Equality Act 2010. The claimant was employed by Network Rail as a Senior Ergonomics Specialist and had been involved in work on a Manual Handling Pilot Training session. During the hearing, the claimant withdrew the earlier complaints about exclusion from the training materials finalisation process, leaving two allegations for decision.

On the first allegation, the tribunal found that there were opportunities for the claimant and John Knight to speak at the 1 March 2019 training session, but that both had missed those opportunities. It accepted that Mr Knight's main role that day was to support the training delivery, and that he had other competing priorities. The tribunal concluded there were no primary facts showing less favourable treatment because of sex, and therefore no basis for the burden of proof to shift.

On the second allegation, the tribunal found that a receptionist at the training centre had been upset by the way the claimant spoke to her about disabled parking arrangements. It found that Mr Knight did not instigate or encourage an unfounded complaint, but instead passed the matter to the claimant's line manager so it could be dealt with quickly and informally. The tribunal said there was no evidence of gender bias and, in any event, the same course would have followed if a male had spoken to the receptionist in the same way. The claim was therefore dismissed and no monetary remedy was awarded.