Bank worker’s hopes boosted in race discrimination case

A black computer consultant and business data analyst, whose employment with a high street bank was summarily terminated when he was less than three months into his contract, has won a fresh chance to prove that he was a victim of race discrimination.

The bank insisted that the man’s dismissal had nothing to do with his race and was due to his poor performance. An Employment Tribunal (ET) rejected his claim on the basis that it preferred the evidence of his line manager as to the events in question and the motives for his dismissal.

In allowing his appeal, however, the Employment Appeal Tribunal found that the ET’s reasons were insufficient to enable him to understand why he had lost his claim. It was not enough for the ET to baldly state that it preferred one witness’s evidence over another’s without also stating why that was the case. In those circumstances, it was impossible to be satisfied that the case had been tried fairly and the matter was sent back to a fresh ET for re-hearing.