Employee wins £25,000 in compensation after receiving birthday card from her boss

Kani Toure worked for HMRC as a customer service consultant from October 2019. In July 2020 Ms Toure complained that she had been discriminated against ‘mostly because of [her] foreign accent and origin’ as she was a French national of African origin by her boss, Mr Henderson, however these complaints were ignored.

Mr Henderson had a practice at the time of keeping a list of the birthdays with each member of the team and he mentioned during a meeting on Ms Toure’s first birthday working for HMRC that it was her birthday. The next day Mrs Toure explained to her boss that she was not celebrating her birthday for ‘personal reasons’ and asked to be taken off any birthday list. This request was granted, and Ms Toure received an apology.

In the months that followed Ms Toure raised a formal grievance which ultimately led to a temporary relocation which she was told could only be made permanent if she withdrew her grievance. Ms Toure was subsequently signed off sick with work related stress and asked that she receive correspondence only if ‘essential’ and be via email.

However, the next month Ms Toure received 11 emails to check she was ‘alright’ as well as a birthday card. Ms Toure remained on sick leave until she was warned that formal steps would be taken regarding sickness absence. She brought her claims to the Employment Tribunal making over 20 allegations of race and disability harassment, as well as discrimination and victimisation, and 10 of these claims were successful.

The Tribunal found that HMRC’s conduct in repeatedly contacting her during the early part of her sickness absence was unwanted. She had also told her boss that she did not want her birthday to be marked but later received a card. After winning 10 of her claims, Ms Toure was awarded £25,251.62 in compensation including £20,000.00 for injury to feelings.

This case demonstrates the importance of manging an employee’s sickness absence and dealing with their complaints, especially in respect of discrimination and harassment. One way to protect your business against a potential claim for discrimination or harassment claim is to provide Equality and Diversity Training to all of your team members.

If you would like to arrange this training to be delivered by one of our employment experts, or you require advice or guidance of dealing with any HR matters including sickness absence, contact the employment team at Buxton Coates Solicitors on 0330 088 2275 or employment@buxtoncoates.com