In person For the v Respondent — 2019

Mr Q Thomas, a refuse loader employed by Serco Limited, brought claims of direct discrimination because of age and race, together with claims for holiday pay and notice pay. The tribunal applied the section 136 EqA 2010 burden-of-proof approach and the authorities it cited on inference and causation, including Shamoon, Madarassy and Igen. It treated the relevant factual allegations as overtime, allocation of rounds, an alleged belittling incident, and dismissal on 24 July 2018.

The tribunal accepted Mr Joseph's evidence that he had not belittled the claimant and that there was no incident in which the claimant was singled out in front of other staff. It also accepted the evidence that the rounds were broadly similar in physical demand, that the claimant was not required to work overtime against his will, and that any assistance to other crews happened when a team finished early rather than because the claimant was treated differently because of age or race. The tribunal was not satisfied that the comparator evidence showed less favourable treatment.

On the dismissal, the tribunal found that the claimant had discussed time off on 20 July 2018, but that Mr Joseph and Mr Hosier did not authorise four weeks' leave. It found the dismissal was not discriminatory and was instead explained by the claimant's attendance during probation, the respondent's sickness trigger policy, and the claimant's absence and lack of contact on 23 and 24 July 2018 after his leave request had been refused. The discrimination claims were dismissed.

The holiday pay claim was dismissed as not well-founded. The tribunal considered the June 2018 absence and the overlap between sickness, holiday and pay, but did not make any separate holiday-pay award. The respondent accepted that one week's notice pay was due, and the formal judgment records an award of £332.83 gross; that is the only monetary award in the case.