Miss L Mageza v Blaby District Council — 2025

The Claimant, a Homelessness Case Officer employed by Blaby District Council, complained of direct race and sex discrimination arising from the recruitment and selection process for the role of Housing Accommodation and Enablement Officer, for which she applied unsuccessfully. The Tribunal found that the Respondent unlawfully discriminated against the Claimant because of her race and sex in the application of its selection process and in the decision to deny her appointment to the role for which she had achieved the highest score. The Tribunal stepped back and looked at the whole picture before reaching this conclusion. Her remaining complaints of direct race and direct sex discrimination were not well-founded and were dismissed.

On remedy, the Tribunal accepted the Claimant's evidence of mental distress, grief and humiliation caused by the selection process and its outcome, noting a period of sickness absence and six sessions of low intensity cognitive behavioural therapy during which her symptoms moved from moderately severe depression and severe anxiety to mild. Having regard to the Presidential Guidance on the Vento bands and to proportionality, the Tribunal made a single combined injury to feelings award of £15,000 rather than separate awards for each protected characteristic, on the basis that the discrimination arose from the same facts and the grounds of treatment overlapped. The Tribunal declined to make an award of aggravated damages, finding that the threshold had not been met. Interest of £1,334.79 was calculated under the Employment Tribunal (Interest on Awards in Discrimination Cases) Regulations 1996, producing a total award of £16,334.79. The Tribunal also made a recommendation under section 124(2)(c) of the Equality Act 2010 that managers involved in the recruitment process receive mandatory recruitment, interview and selection training within 6 months.