Race discrimination

New and updated

• Date:

  15 February 2001

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Sex and race discrimination: Appointment of "special adviser" did not amount to indirect discrimination

  Despite the fact that, in appointing a "special adviser", the Lord Chancellor had applied a requirement that any appointee should be personally known to him, there was no disproportionate impact on gender or racial grounds, notwithstanding the fact that the Lord Chancellor's "area of association" was likely to be "skewed" against women and ethnic minorities, holds the EAT in The Lord Chancellor and another v Coker and Osamor.

• Date:

  1 February 2001

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Race discrimination: "National origins" means more than nationality acquired at birth

  The meaning of "national origins" in the Race Relations Act 1976 is not limited to the concept of nationality in a legal sense, and thus to the citizenship that an individual may acquire at birth, holds the Inner House, Court of Session in BBC Scotland v Souster.

• Date:

  1 September 2000

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  EAT gives guidance on injury to feelings

  In ICTS (UK) Ltd v Tchoula the EAT has found that an award of £27,000 for injury to feelings, including aggravated damages, to a black man who was found to have been dismissed because he had made allegations of race discrimination was so excessive as to amount to an error of law.

• 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.