In the Leeds employment tribunal case of Miss S Kaur and Miss S Rehman v Mr J Woodhouse and Capita Retail Finance Services Ltd, two employees (Kaur and Rehman) alleged that their manager, Mr Woodhouse, made a racist comment in the workplace and sought compensation from their manager and employer, Capita Retail Finance Services Ltd.
Kaur and Rehman v Woodhouse and Capita Retail Finance Services Ltd
Case background
Miss Kaur and Miss Rehman (the Claimants) both worked in the operations team at Capita Retail Financial Services. They are both of Asian ethnicity.
According to the Claimants in January 2019 Mr Woodhouse was walking past their bank of office desks in which a white work colleague was sitting in a chair where a black employee (Mattar) usually sat and said:
“Has Mattar been dipped and had his head shaved?”
At the time, Mr Woodhouse “seemed to find the comment funny” according to Miss Kaur, whilst she, Miss Rehman and other colleagues were shocked by the remark.
Mr Woodhouse denied the allegation against him. At a later point in time, he said that he may have been misheard.
Before the incident had occurred, the relationship between Miss Kaur and Mr Woodhouse had “significantly broken down” and Miss Kaur “did not trust having a one-to-one conversation with him without a witness present”. Additionally, Miss Kaur commented that due to the way in which he treated her she had requested a shift change. However, she didn’t believe that this treatment was racially motivated.
Following the incident, Miss Kaur submitted a written grievance against her manager in relation to the treatment which she had been subjected to which she felt amounted to bullying and harassment. The racist comment alleged to have been made by Mr Woodhouse was also raised in the grievance letter.
An internal investigation was undertaken in February 2019 as a consequence of the written grievance and the Claimants were interviewed as part of that. Miss Rehman backed up the allegation made by Miss Kaur in relation to the alleged racial comment. Mr Woodhouse denied having made the comment during the internal investigation, and was offended that the allegation was being made against him.
Capita Retail Finance Services suspended Mr Woodhouse following the investigation, as it was likely that he did make the comment, and a subsequent disciplinary investigation would take place. However, the employer did not uphold the allegations made by Miss Kaur with regards to the bullying and harassment which she claimed she had been subject to. She was assigned to a new manager and was eventually moved to a different shift pattern, along with Miss Rehman.
The disciplinary investigation against Mr Woodhouse still hasn’t taken place due to the fact that he hasn’t returned to work due to illness.
The Claimants brought an employment tribunal claim against their employer and Mr Woodhouse.
Employment tribunal ruling
The employment tribunal ruled that Mr Woodhouse must pay damages in excess of £2,600 to the Claimants for his comments which caused injured feelings and a hostile working environment.
However, the employment tribunal found that Capita Retail Finance Services had acted appropriately in the circumstances and dismissed the Claimant’s claim against the Company holding that they had taken reasonable steps to prevent harassment from occurring. In the judgement, the tribunal commented:
“Capita did not just have comprehensive policies in place. It communicated them, trained all employees on them and updated that training annually.”
Comment
This case highlights the benefit to employers of having “living, breathing” policies on equality, discrimination and harassment on which employees are appropriately trained and that training regularly refreshed. This puts employers in the best possible position to argue that they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent discrimination and to reduce the chance that they are held liable for offence comments or actions of their employees in direct contravention of those policies.
In this case, Capita Retail Finance Services’ proactive approach no doubt saved them from an adverse tribunal finding and a financial penalty.
How Nelsons can help
All employers should have an equality policy and this should be reviewed regularly to ensure compliance with changes in the law and best practice. If employers want the best possible chance of defending discrimination claims then they should ensure that employees and particularly managers are trained on the policy and that training is kept up to date.
At Nelsons, we can provide or review equality policies as well as providing training for staff at all levels on equality and discrimination. For further information or to comment on this article, please contact Laura Kearsley, Partner in our expert Employment Law team, or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.