A Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) soldier who was mistaken for a BAME colleague and given a poor performance appraisal as a result, has successfully presented a claim for race discrimination.
Randy Date v Ministry of Defence
Case background
Sergeant Randy Date was given a poor appraisal for a course taught at the Military Corrective Training Centre in Colchester, Essex.
Date had not however taught the course, the appraisal referred to. Instead, it was taught by the only other black and ethnic minority sergeant in the unit.
The Soldiers Joint Appraisal Report (SJAR), which was drafted by one of his superiors and proof-read by another, claimed that Date “was happy to do the minimum expected of him” and said his teaching on a course named Right Turn was “badly prepared” and “seemingly heavily reliant on course notes”.
Date complained about the content of the SJAR and stated that he had never taught the Right Turn course and that it was Sergeant Rashid, the only other black sergeant on the training wing, who taught that programme.
Tribunal proceedings
The Tribunal found that Flight Lieutenant Taylor, the person who had written the report, was unlikely to have observed Date’s teaching at all and said that he had completely relied on observations made by a colleague.
Date’s grievance was raised through the armed forces service complaints process. The internal complaint about race discrimination was dismissed by the Ministry of Defence and his subsequent appeal was also dismissed. However, the Employment Tribunal ruled in Date’s favour with regard to the complaint about the content of the SJAR.
The Judgment stated:
“We conclude that the mistake about the claimant doing the Right Turn course, the colour of Sgt Rashid who did the course and our finding that Flight Lt Taylor did not observe the claimant’s teaching is sufficient for the burden of proof to shift to the respondent to prove that the claimant’s race or colour played no part whatsoever in this erroneous conclusion.
“Whilst mistakes can be made, the respondent has not established that race played no part whatsoever in this mistake.”
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