Mr Aaron Green v Driving & Vehicle Standards Agency — 2023

Mr Green had been employed by the DVSA since 20 February 2017. The tribunal accepted his stated belief, not taking any form of medication at all unless life threatening or otherwise absolutely necessary, as a protected philosophical belief under s10 EqA 2010 after applying Grainger. It found the belief was genuinely held, weighty, cogent and worthy of respect, and treated his refusal of covid vaccination as a manifestation of that belief.

The direct race discrimination claim failed. The tribunal found that the 15 September 2021 email about the ARVATO letter arose from a contractual dispute about working hours, that JG's wording could have been clearer but was not race-related, and that the failure to send two emails to Charles Perkins was an accidental omission rather than a deliberate attempt to influence the grievance outcome. On the overtime allegation, the tribunal accepted that the claimant was the only DE whose overtime request was paused, but it found no basis for race as the reason.

The belief discrimination claim succeeded only on the overtime allegation. On or around 1 October 2021, JG refused to allow overtime until a risk assessment had been carried out because the claimant had not had the covid-19 vaccination and did not intend to have it. The tribunal found that non-vaccination was the expression of the claimant's protected belief and that the respondent had not shown a non-discriminatory explanation. The harassment claim failed because the alleged instruction for three managers to attend the risk assessment was not proved and, in any event, would not have met s26 EqA 2010. The victimisation claim failed after the tribunal refused a late application to amend the protected act relied on; without that amendment, the pleaded victimisation claim could not succeed.

At remedy, the tribunal awarded £5,000 for injury to feelings and £1,336.50 for financial loss. It found that the financial loss consisted of £247.50 for 2 to 7 October 2021 in full and a further loss for 1 November 2021 to 17 January 2022 arising from overtime missed while on sick leave, but reduced that element to 40% because other causative factors, including the earlier contractual dispute, also contributed. The formal order states £1,336.50 financial loss, although paragraph 85.2 contains an internal arithmetic inconsistency in the worked figure.