Case study: Redmans wins £30,000 for client in race discrimination Employment Tribunal claim

Summary

How Chris Hadrill successfully represented a Claimant in his claim for race discrimination in the Employment Tribunal on a ‘no win no fee’ basis and secured compensation of over £30,000 for his client.

Under the Equality Act 2010, employees can make a claim to the Employment Tribual if they believe that they have been discriminated against, harassed or victimized because of their race (or any other ‘protected characteristic’). Potential claims include the following:

• Section 13 Equality Act 2010 – to make a claim to the Employment Tribunal for direct race discrimination if they believe that they have been treated less favourably because of their race (“direct race discrimination”)
• Section 26(1) Equality Act 2010 – to make a claim to the Employment Tribunal for race-related harassment in the Employment Tribunal if they believe that they have been subjected to unwanted conduct related to their (or another person’s) race which has the purpose or effect of creating a hostile work environment or humiliating them
• Section 27 Equality Act 2010 – to make a claim to the Employment Tribunal for victimization if they believe that they have been subjected to a detriment because they have, for example, threatened to make a claim for race discrimination to the Employment Tribunal

Situation

Michael (not his real name), who is of Polish national origin, was a bouncer at a West London nightclub. During the course of his employment his Serbian colleagues started to isolate him and bully him and his line manager, who is also Serbian, started to reduce his hours from his normal forty hours a week to only 25 hours a week.

One day, Michael turned up to work and was told by his line manager that he was be summarily dismissed. No reason was given for the dismissal by his line manager but he later received an email stating that he was being dismissed for “lateness and lack of work efficiency”. Prior to his dismissal, Michael had never had any informal or formal warnings about his performance at work.

What we did

Chris Hadrill, a specialist employment solicitor at Redmans, represented Michael on a ‘no win no fee’ basis in his Employment Tribunal claim. Chris dealt with the procedure of the claim and represented Michael at the full Employment Tribunal hearing.

The result

With Chris handling his case, Michael won his claim and was found by the Employment Tribunal to have been unfairly dismissed and directly discriminated against because of his nationality. The Employment Tribunal awarded Michael over £30,000 in compensation for his claims.