Help on discrimination claim please

[believe]

In need of employment law advice please

Based in England and worked for my employer for 5 years.

I am seeking advice regarding a case of constructive dismissal and racial harassment.
It’s a long one with lots of intricacies, whilst I know it’s hard to prove constructive dismissal historically, I don’t forsee any problem with this. In my case I am trying to determine the success probability of the direct discrimination part of my claim.

**Employment Tribunal**:
I am pursuing claims under the Equality Act 2010, including:
- Direct Discrimination (Section 13)
- Harassment (Section 26)
- Constructive Dismissal

A situation was reported to my work as a formal grievance. The grievance process was not conducted correctly, leading me to escalate the matter to ACAS and now to an Employment Tribunal which is where I am currently.

**Background**:
1. **First Incident**: During an outing with colleagues, one individual used a racial slur multiple times, despite my objections. This behaviour was captured on video, and there were 3 independent witnesses (colleagues). I did not report this incident to work at the time.
2. **Second Incident**: At a work event, the same colleague repeated the same racial slur. There were no witnesses for this occasion.
3. **Third Incident**: Another colleague reported that the same individual again used the same racial slur while discussing the earlier incidents. This colleague is willing to act as a witness.
**Grievance**:
- I filed a formal grievance.
- The process was flawed: I was not interviewed, witnesses were not called, and evidence was ignored. The grievance was deemed inconclusive without providing an appeal option.
- I appealed the decision, submitting further information and video evidence, which demonstrated a clear pattern of behaviour.
- Despite this, the appeal decision remained inconclusive.

**Resignation**:
I cited an unsafe and discriminatory work environment. This resignation was clear that it was a direct results of the mishandling of this and not taking claims of racial discrimination seriously.

I would like to add a claim for Victimisation (Section 27) for the treatment of myself throughout the process, is this advisable? Without going into detail, the entire environment changed, I was excluded from meetings following submitting the appeal amongst other things.

There are concerns that my direct discrimination claim (regarding grievance handling and systemic bias) may be difficult to prove.

My belief is that the grievance process, lack of action, and overall workplace culture demonstrate clear unconscious bias and discrimination. I can see how this almost forms a picture of a “conspiracy theory” but knowing I have evidence of the workplace environment accepting and tolerating discrimination and racism over the years and witnesses who will support this and no action was ever taken from the employer to combat this. Does this add to substantiating the claim or is it actually irrelevant?

[ULA]

For you to claim direct race discrimination then you will need to prove that you have received less favourable treatment as a consequence of your protected characteristic which has put you at a disadvantage, compared to someone who does not have that characteristic.


So you are going to need to prove that the way in which the grievance was conducted and any other forms of less favourable treatment were due to your race and that someone who did not have a protected characteristic would have not been treated in the same way.

From you request regarding victimisation if this was not included in your original claim then you may need to make an application to add it to your claim.