Mr Nadir Awad Elkarim v Network Rail Infrastructure Limited — 2021

The claimant complained that five unsuccessful internal applications for Economic Analyst roles were acts of direct discrimination because of age, race and religion or belief. The tribunal recorded that the claimant gave no evidence about the first application and no specific evidence about the second. For the third application, the tribunal accepted evidence that the claimant initially met essential criteria but did not progress after a stricter sift, with reasons including stronger evidence from other candidates and limited information in the claimant's application about relevant skills and experience.

For the fourth application, the tribunal accepted the respondent's evidence that auto-sift questions, a numerical reasoning test and blind sifting were introduced to manage a large number of applications and improve the process. The claimant passed the numerical reasoning test but did not score sufficiently highly at the CV sift stage. The tribunal rejected the claimant's allegations that the process or assistance with his CV had been arranged to block his application, finding no evidential basis that the process was created with him in mind or because of protected characteristics.

For the fifth application, the tribunal found that the six-month reapplication rule applied generally and that the claimant was allowed to proceed despite it. His application was then blind sifted and received the lowest average score among sifted candidates. The tribunal concluded that the claimant had not established facts from which discrimination could be inferred; even if the burden had shifted, it would have accepted the respondent's non-discriminatory explanations. All complaints were dismissed.