Race discrimination

New and updated

• Date:

  15 January 2000

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Race discrimination: Narrow definition of "knowingly aids" for purposes of Race Relations Act

  A person who "knowingly aids" another to do an unlawful act contrary to the Race Relations Act 1976 is to be treated as doing such an act himself or herself. In this context, the word "aids" must be construed in accordance with its natural and ordinary meaning, which is to help or assist another who is the prime mover, holds the Court of Appeal in Anyanwu and another v (1) South Bank Students' Union (2) South Bank University.

• Date:

  15 September 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Race discrimination: Damages for personal injury may be awarded under Race Relations Act

  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.

• Date:

  15 August 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Race discrimination: Conscious motivation is not a prerequisite for victimisation

  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.

• Date:

  15 January 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Race discrimination: White woman told to discriminate against black people was herself racially discriminated against

  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.

• Date:

  15 May 1998

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Race discrimination: Discriminatory instruction was less favourable treatment

  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.

• Date:

  1 May 1998

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Effect of bias by interviewers

  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".

• Date:

  15 April 1998

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Race discrimination: Provision of Race Relations Act incompatible with EC law

  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.

• Date:

  1 February 1998

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Race discrimination: Reasonableness irrelevant to less favourable treatment

  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.

• Date:

  15 November 1997

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Race discrimination: Scottish and English are racial groups

  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.

• Date:

  15 April 1997

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Race discrimination: £21,000 award for injury to feelings upheld

  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.