Foreseeable discrimination injury

Essa v Laing Ltd (EAT TLR 7 April)

The appellant, a Welshman of Somali ethnicity who at the relevant time was an amateur boxer, worked for the employer as a labourer. While on site, the foreman made a racially abusive comment about the appellant, causing him immense distress. Although the abuse was a one-off incident, the appellant left the respondent’s employment and subsequently suffered severe depression, lost interest in boxing and fell into debt. The tribunal had been wrong in finding that although the employer might reasonably have foreseen that some distress and a premature departure might have resulted from the abuse, it could not have foreseen the extent of the appellant’s reaction to it nor his subsequent failure to look for other work, and that therefore this should not be reflected in his compensation. There was no need for a victim of racial discrimination to show that loss through the discrimination was reasonably foreseeable, a causal link is sufficient. The Race Relations Act 1976 was designed to protect persons from all kinds of discrimination on the ground of race and any consequent injury, including personal injury such as psychiatric damage. The case was remitted to the employment tribunal to reconsider the question of compensation having regard to such finding as it might make and to what extent the appellant’s psychological injury was a direct cause of the racial abuse suffered. The tribunal would have to consider whether there was any intervening cause, such as unreasonable refusal or failure to seek and follow medical advice.