Employment Commentary - 1/3/2010

In a case involving the Metropolitan Police and a Miss Osinaike, an Employment Tribunal have considered Miss Osinaike's complaints of race and sex discrimination, and it dismissed most of those claims. However, the Tribunal in the first instance found that a comment which went along the lines of "we believe you need to see a psychiatrist" which was made by a manager to the employee during an occupational health meeting was racial harassment.

The Police appealed to the Appeal Tribunal and the Appeal Tribunal upheld the Police appeal. The Tribunal has ruled that simply unreasonable or unfair conduct is not by itself enough to trigger a case of discrimination on the face of it. It also ruled that a simple difference in race between two people did not lead to an inference of discrimination. The Tribunal had to consider the reason why the employer acted and said what it did.

The relevance of this is that in such cases once an employee has shown what it is called a "prima facie" case (ie on the face of it) it is up to the employer to prove they are innocent. This case makes it a little more difficult for the employee to show the prima facie case.