Less favourable treatment

Case 8: The facts

After a tribunal dismissed his claim of race discrimination, Mr Brown argued that it should have considered the issue in two stages – firstly, whether he had experienced less favourable treatment than a comparator (actual or hypothetical), and secondly, whether that treatment was on grounds of his race.

The ruling

The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a two-stage process is not always necessary to establish whether there is discrimination. Sometimes focusing on the reason for the conduct can be enough to establish whether there was discrimination.

In this case the tribunal had concluded from the evidence that the treatment complained of was unrelated to Brown’s race, and it did not need to do a sequential analysis.

Brown v LB Croydon and Johnston UKEAT/0672/05