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Race discrimination
Employment tribunals have jurisdiction to award compensation for the statutory tort of unlawful racial discrimination under the Race Relations Act, including damages for physical or psychiatric injury caused by the tort, holds the Court of Appeal in Sheriff v Klyne Tugs (Lowestoft) Ltd.
It was a sufficient basis for a claim of victimisation for an unsuccessful job applicant to show that those who had interviewed him were subconsciously influenced by their knowledge of the fact that he had previously done a protected act, holds the House of Lords in Nagarajan v London Regional Transport.
A white woman who left her job with a vehicle rental company because she objected to its policy of not hiring vehicles to black people was herself the victim of unlawful race discrimination, holds the Court of Appeal in Weathersfield Ltd (t/a Van & Truck Rentals) v Sargent.
In Weathersfield Ltd t/a Van & Truck Rentals v Sargent, the EAT upholds an industrial tribunal's finding that a white employee suffered unlawful race discrimination when she was instructed by her employer to discriminate on racial grounds against black and Asian people, and consequently resigned because she was put in an intolerable position.
In Marks & Spencer plc v Martins (19 December 1997) EOR79B, the Court of Appeal rules that it was an error for an industrial tribunal to find that the employer discriminated against an applicant on grounds of her race because its interviewers were guilty of "bias".
In Bossa v Nordstress Ltd and another, the EAT holds that an industrial tribunal has jurisdiction to determine an Italian national's complaint that, because of his nationality, he was denied an interview in this country for a job based in Italy.
The concept of direct discrimination under the Race Relations Act requires it to be shown that the claimant has been treated by the person against whom the discrimination is alleged less favourably than that person treats or would have treated another, the House of Lords rules in Zafar v Glasgow City Council.
The Scottish and the English constitute separate racial groups for the purposes of the Race Relations Act, defined by reference to their "national origins", rules the EAT in Northern Joint Police Board v Power.
In HM Prison Service and others v Johnson, the EAT upholds an award of £21,000 for injury to feelings made by an industrial tribunal to a black prison officer who was subjected to a prolonged campaign of racial harassment and discrimination.
In Jones v Tower Boot Co Ltd, the Court of Appeal holds that the words "in the course of employment" in the Race Relations Act should be interpreted in the sense in which they are employed in everyday speech, and not restrictively by reference to the principles laid down by case law for establishing an employer's liability for the torts committed by an employee during the course of his or her employment.
HR and legal information and guidance relating to race discrimination.