Mrs G Long v British Gas Trading Limited — 2022

The claimant was employed as IP Counsel and returned from maternity leave working three days per week. The tribunal found that the respondent operated a discriminatory performance capping policy connected with maternity absence and that the claimant's 2017 capped rating was later used in the redundancy scoring when the respondent's own instruction required the previous rating to be used.

The equal pay complaint succeeded because the respondent conceded like work and that MP, a male comparator, was paid more, but did not prove its market forces explanation. The tribunal found the evidence for that explanation was unsupported assertion and hearsay, with no evidence of market conditions, salary benchmarking, negotiation, or that a lower salary would not have secured MP.

The promotion-related sex discrimination and part-time worker complaints were dismissed. The tribunal found material differences between the claimant and Shaw Stapely, including department, line management, work and performance history, and found that the relevant managers supported the claimant's promotion pitch rather than personally discriminating against her.

The dismissal-related sex discrimination, part-time worker and unfair dismissal complaints succeeded. The tribunal relied on matters including the equal pay breach, the discriminatory performance capping policy, unexplained low flight-risk marking, emails about the claimant's working pattern, unreasonable criticism linked to part-time working, and use of the wrong performance rating. It also found the redundancy process unfair because there was no consultation on selection criteria, the wrong performance year was used and not corrected on appeal, limited consideration was given to comparing a long-serving employee with a recent hire, and there was inadequate evidence that progress on the PIP was considered.