Member Article

Tipster: Victims of discrimination may enforce full award against any of the discriminators?

As part of a new feature bdaily will provide regular business tips that have been contributed by our readers. Today, David Gibson from Crutes Law Firm, a regular contributor, enlightens us on the following topic:

Victims of discrimination may enforce full award against any of the discriminators?

The Tipster has noted that the Employment Appeal Tribunal has recently reaffirmed that someone who successfully receives an award in the Employment Tribunal can enforce that award against any of the parties. So, for example, an individual brings a claim against a company and a line manager and, the company is placed in liquidation, then the individual line manager could still be responsible for the sum. This is important because it removes that urban myth that sometimes an individual found to have discriminated against someone would only be liable for a small proportion of the award.

In the case before the Employment Tribunal the successful Claimant was entitled to £421,415 and, those wining numbers could be enforced against all or any of the Respondents to her claim.

For employers the message is clear, make sure you have a good equal opportunities policy in place so that people are aware that they should not and cannot discriminate. This will also provide you with something which is called the statutory defence, namely we did all we could in the circumstances and this person was off on a folly of their own, therefore we can only accept a limited amount of liability. This is not a foolproof defence but is certainly something that employers can use to try and defend their position.

For further information about this tip or to learn more about Crutes’ services contact David Gibson on 0191 233 9762.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Gibson .