Concern for employee's safety leads to race discrimination claim
Ms B Ahmed was a UK national of Sudanese origin employed by Amnesty International as a campaigner
In the summer of 2007 her application for promotion to a researcher role covering Sudan was unsuccessful. Although Ms Ahmed was a strong candidate, Amnesty rejected her application on grounds that her connection to Sudan may affect people’s perception of Amnesty’s impartiality, and also, they genuinely felt her Sudanese origins would put her and those with her in real danger. Ms Ahmed resigned claiming unfair constructive dismissal and discrimination on the ground of her race.
The tribunal found in Ms Ahmed’s favour on both claims. The failure to promote was direct discrimination under section 1(1) (a) of the Race Discrimination Act 1976. The decision could not be excused by the genuine concerns of her employer because under the legislation motive is irrelevant, however well-meant where race is the ground of the treatment in question. The tribunal also found that this treatment was enough to uphold a claim of unfair constructive dismissal.
Amnesty appealed. The EAT upheld the race discrimination claim making the point that although usually the case, a successful discrimination claim could not automatically be assumed to be grounds for constructive dismissal – there had to be a breach of trust and confidence. In this case, the employer had shown ‘great conscientiousness’ when looking at all the issues and had encouraged her to apply for similar posts. In so doing Amnesty had shown its ‘continued faith in Ms Ahmed and therefore a breach of trust and confidence could not be established – for this reason the claim for constructive dismissal failed.
Author: Clarissa Dann
Clarissa Dann was the editor of Caritas as well as an HR and management online service,he People Bulletin until July 2011.
She is now the editor of the specialist trade finance magazine, Trade and Forfaiting Review which can be viewed at www.tfreview.com but does write on charity finance and investment from time to time.
Clarissa has a background in legal and professional publishing, as well as business journalism and holds an MBA from
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