Thursday 24 November 2005

Minimum Discrimination Awards

An interesting case from the EAT (sitting in Scotland) involving awards for injury to feelings when a disabled job applicant made a job application which was "not made wholly in good faith."

The Claimant applied for a job as a security officer. On his application form, he said he suffereded from depression and had not had a job for 14 years. His application was rejected at the first sift, which the tribunal found to be discriminatory on grounds of the Claimant's disability.

However, the tribunal noted that the Claimant was woefully underqualified for the job and had probably lied about the training he had received. They thought his job application was "not made wholly in good faith", and noted that he had attended a number of tribunal claims previously as a result of which he had a wide knowledge of discrimination law.

They awarded him £500 for injury to feelings. The Claimant appealed on the basis that a practical minimum should be £750, and on these facts he should have been awarded £2,500.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal dismissed the appeal, holding that the award of £500 was well within the tribunal's discretion. Interestingly, the EAT held that there was no minimum award that tribunals should award (which appears to go against previous authorities), albeit that a practice had arisen of awarding at least £500.

Greig v Initial Security Ltd

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