Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Case round up

by Personnel Today 6 Feb 2001
by Personnel Today 6 Feb 2001

This
week’s case roundup…

Employee
unable to pursue discrimination claim
Relaxion Group v Rhys-Harper, IDS Brief 667 EAT

At
the appeal against her dismissal, Rhys-Harper made a complaint of sexual
harassment against her manager. Both the appeal and complaint were rejected.

Her
sex discrimination claim centred on an allegation that Relaxion had failed to
properly investigate her complaint. The tribunal held it had jurisdiction
taking into account the ECJ and EAT decisions in Coote v Granada Hospitality
which extended the scope of the Sex Discrimination Act by enabling a former
employee to pursue a victimisation claim relating to acts which occurred after
employment had ended.

Relaxion
successfully appealed. It argued that the failure to investigate the harassment
complaint, the act of discrimination, post-dated the dismissal and the SDA and
Coote covered only post-employment victimisation. The EAT agreed. Coote should
be interpreted narrowly and applied only to cases of post-employment
victimisation. Leave to appeal was given.

Awareness
of investigation necessary
London Borough of Ealing v Garry, IRLB 656, EAT

Garry,
a Nigerian, was the council’s housing benefits manager. After learning she had
been investigated by her previous employer for suspected housing benefit fraud
and soon after dismissing another Nigerian employee for a similar reason, the
council appointed Singh, a "special" investigator to look into the
case concerning Garry.

In
March 1997 Singh concluded Garry had been involved in a fraudulent claim but
Garry only learned she had been under investigation in May. The next month she
met the auditors and in August the council concluded there was insufficient
evidence to start disciplinary proceedings. It omitted to tell Garry or Singh
of this and he continued with his investigations, albeit limited to a few
further phone calls. Only in July 1998 was Garry told no further action would
be taken.

She
brought a successful race discrimination claim. The tribunal held that
stereotypical assumptions had been made about Garry being a Nigerian and this
was why a "special" rather than ordinary investigator had been
appointed. Further, Garry had been subjected to a detriment by the ongoing
investigation even though she had been unaware of it. The council successfully
appealed. Although the tribunal had been entitled to infer the reason for
Singh’s appointment was Garry’s race she had not suffered any detriment because
her lack of awareness of the ongoing investigation had not caused her any
actual disadvantage.

By
Eversheds

Personnel Today
Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Socpo to expand its membership to 5,000
next post
Keeping on top of the E-Recruit revolution

You may also like

Employees going into office just 1.5 days a...

15 Aug 2022

Barrister wins gender critical belief discrimination claim

27 Jul 2022

‘Patchy’ mental health services failing ethnic minority communities

11 Jul 2022

Global study highlights hypertension treatment failings

8 Jul 2022

NICE sets out new guideline on managing depression

8 Jul 2022

Half of employees struggle to switch off on...

8 Jul 2022

Five steps for organisations across the globe to...

8 Jun 2022

The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls

24 May 2022

Grants scheme set up to support women’s health...

16 May 2022

How music can help to ease anxiety at...

9 May 2022
  • 6 reasons why work-based learning is better than traditional training PROMOTED | A recent Fortune/Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs are anticipating that this year’s biggest business disrupter...Read more
  • Strengthening Scotland’s public services through virtual recruiting PROMOTED | This website is Scotland's go-to place for job seekers looking to apply for roles in public services...Read more
  • What’s next for L&D? Enter Alchemist… PROMOTED | It’s time to turn off the tedious and get ready for interactive and immersive learning experiences...Read more
  • Simple mistakes are blighting the onboarding experience PROMOTED | The onboarding of new hires is a company’s best chance...Read more
  • Preventing Burnout: How can HR help key workers get the right help? PROMOTED | Workplace wellbeing may seem a distant memory...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+