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 [1998] IRLR 36. In deciding that issue, the conduct of a hypothetical reasonable employer is therefore irrelevant.