Direct liability for harassment

Race discrimination: Employer liable for third-party harassment

Date:

15 November 1996

In Burton and Rhule v De Vere Hotels, the EAT holds that an employer "subjected" its employees to unlawful race discrimination when it allowed a speaker and guests at its hotel to abuse and harass them racially, in circumstances in which it had sufficient control over the discriminatory event so as to have been able to prevent or reduce the extent of it by applying good employment practice.