Claimant v NHS England
Outcome
Individual claims
The tribunal found none of the alleged acts of direct sex discrimination were proven on the balance of probabilities or, where proven, were not because of the claimant's sex. The respondent provided clear non-discriminatory explanations for all actions.
The tribunal found none of the alleged acts of direct race discrimination were proven on the balance of probabilities or, where proven, were not because of the claimant's race. There were no facts from which the tribunal could conclude discrimination occurred.
The tribunal found none of the alleged acts of direct religion discrimination were proven on the balance of probabilities or, where proven, were not because of the claimant's religion. The respondent's explanations were accepted as non-discriminatory.
The tribunal found that the alleged conduct either did not occur, or where it did occur, it was not related to race and did not have the purpose or effect of violating the claimant's dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.
The tribunal found that the alleged conduct either did not occur, or where it did occur, it was not related to sex and did not have the purpose or effect of harassment. The conduct was not sufficiently serious to constitute harassment even taking into account the claimant's perception.
The tribunal found that the alleged conduct either did not occur, or where it did occur, it was not related to religion and did not have the purpose or effect of harassment.
All claims under the Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 failed. The claimant failed to identify valid comparators and failed to establish less favourable treatment on the ground that she was a part-time worker.
Facts
The claimant, a part-time deputy quality manager employed by NHS England since January 2016, brought wide-ranging discrimination and harassment claims spanning 2016 to 2022 against multiple managers. She alleged direct discrimination based on race, religion and sex, harassment, and less favourable treatment as a part-time worker across approximately 33 separate allegations. The claimant had been on long-term sick leave since March 2022 and issued her claim in July 2022. Many allegations were unparticularised or inadequately particularised, and the respondent conducted an investigation which found no substantial evidence to support the allegations.
Decision
The tribunal dismissed all claims. The tribunal found that the vast majority of the alleged acts of discrimination either did not occur on the balance of probabilities, or where they did occur, were not because of or related to any protected characteristic. The respondent provided credible non-discriminatory explanations for its actions. The Part-Time Workers claims failed because the claimant did not identify valid comparators and did not establish less favourable treatment on grounds of part-time status.
Practical note
Claims with multiple unparticularised allegations spanning many years, brought without contemporaneous documentary support and contradicted by credible witness evidence, are unlikely to succeed even where the claimant subjectively believes discrimination occurred.
Legal authorities cited
Statutes
Case details
- Case number
- 2204615/2022
- Decision date
- 20 January 2025
- Hearing type
- full merits
- Hearing days
- 10
- Classification
- contested
Respondent
- Name
- NHS England
- Sector
- healthcare
- Represented
- Yes
- Rep type
- barrister
Employment details
- Role
- Deputy Quality, Patient Safety and Commissioning Manager
Claimant representation
- Represented
- Yes
- Rep type
- barrister