L Millar and M McAllister Ms J Adegun v The Scottish Ministers — 2023

The claimant proceeded at the final hearing with two claims: harassment related to race and victimisation. The tribunal recorded that earlier wider claims, including unfair dismissal, were not before it for determination at this hearing. Remedy was to be considered separately only if any claim succeeded.

For the harassment claim, the claimant relied on being told by Mr Walls on 24 June 2021 that she would receive her pre-promotion salary rather than her promoted salary for that month. The tribunal found that this occurred and was unwanted conduct, but that it was not related to race. It accepted that 131 staff had been affected by payroll capacity issues, that staff of different races were treated in the same way, and that Mr Walls did not know the claimant's race before the call.

For the victimisation claim, the tribunal accepted that bringing Tribunal claim number 4110998/2021 was a protected act. It considered alleged detriments concerning performance comments, the end-year review, whether Mr Dick's input would be sought, and the ending of the claimant's temporary responsibility supplement role. The tribunal found that some matters were not detriments or were not established, and that the ending of the TRS role was a detriment. It found, however, that the decision-makers did not know of the Tribunal claim at the material times and that the treatment was in any event because of performance concerns or review process reasons, not because of the protected act.

The tribunal therefore held that the harassment and victimisation claims were ill founded and dismissed each claim.