Claimant v Lidl Great Britain Limited

The tribunal found as a fact that Mr Bean did not prohibit Polish-speaking staff from speaking Polish, and that the Claimant was given the same notice of shifts as other staff. The Claimant was not subjected to less favourable treatment because of her Polish nationality.

The tribunal found that IO did not make racist comments during the incident on 19 December 2023. While IO made inappropriate physical contact, this was not related to the Claimant's nationality and did not have the purpose or reasonable effect of violating her dignity on grounds of race. Other alleged incidents (checking Polish customer's bag, laughter at meetings, distorted minutes) either did not occur as alleged or were not related to the Claimant's Polish nationality.

The tribunal found that none of the matters relied upon by the Claimant constituted protected acts under s.27 EqA 2010, as the Claimant did not make allegations of discrimination in her initial complaints about the IO incident. Even if protected acts had been established, the alleged detriments either did not occur as alleged or were not because of any protected act. For example, the Claimant was not promised a full-time contract, shift changes were for legitimate operational reasons, and scheduling mistakes were inadvertent.