A case in the news this week is a useful reminder that even when an employer has failed to act correctly in some instances & faces a tribunal claim, this does not necessarily mean that ALL claims made by an employee will be successful.
In the case of Dr Gupta vs NHS Tayside, the employment tribunal found that whilst Dr Gupta’s manager had not acted reasonably in his dismissal, there were no grounds to uphold the claim of racial discrimination.
It sometimes feels to employers as if once there is a problem, employees will take a bit of a kitchen sink approach and throw (or threaten to) every claim possible at the tribunal application.
We’ve witnessed it ourselves and we know how nerve wracking this can be for employers (who may have sometimes got other things wrong but often times have done absolutely nothing to warrant any tribunal claim even being made) to think they may be accused of discrimination which can damage reputations as well as result in a costly pay out.
Hopefully the tribunal pre-claim conciliation service may serve to weed out more of these spurious claims, thereby both protecting employers and allowing the tribunal service to focus on genuine cases of discrimination and poor treatment.