Discrimination that makes you ill can increase your compensation.
“EATStands for Employment Appeal Tribunal. It hears appeals from employment tribunal decisions on points of law, not on the facts. It is not a way of simply asking for a second opinion on the outcome. upheld the full award, including psychiatric injury and aggravated damagesExtra compensation a tribunal can award on top of your normal claim if your employer's conduct was especially high-handed, malicious, or insulting, not just unlawful. It reflects the additional hurt c....”
A psychiatric injury caused by discrimination, such as depression, can be compensated separately from injury to feelingsA head of compensation in discrimination claims that recognises the distress and hurt caused by discriminatory treatment, separate from any financial loss. The amount is assessed using the Vento guide..., or as part of it, as long as the tribunal is clear about what it is awarding for.
- Be specific with any tribunal or adviser about how discrimination has affected your health, not just how it made you feel at the time.
- Keep evidence of how your employer responded afterwards, including any delay or dismissiveness, since this can increase your compensation.
- Get advice early if you think discrimination has caused you a lasting psychiatric injury, since these claims usually need medical evidence to succeed.
The situation
A prison officer worked as one of only a few women in an all-male prison. Over several years she experienced a sexist culture at work, including crude jokes and pornographic material left out in an office she used. Matters came to a head when she found two sexually degrading entries about her and her husband written by a colleague in an official work logbook. She was deeply shaken, went off sick the next day, and was later diagnosed with a moderate to severe depressive illness. She never returned to work and took ill-health retirement about 14 months later.
What the tribunal found
The employment tribunalAn independent court that hears disputes between employees and employers. It is free to bring a claim as a claimant, and most hearings take place in public. upheld several of her sex discrimination complaints, with the logbook incident treated as by far the most serious. It awarded compensation under three separate heads: for her psychiatric injury, for injury to feelings, and for lost earnings. It also added aggravated damages on top of the injury to feelings award, because her employer had treated the whole episode as trivial, most notably by delaying any disciplinary action against the colleague responsible until after the tribunal case had finished. On appeal, the Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld the award in full. What matters is whether the tribunal is clear about what each part of the award covers. When it is, stress and depression caused by discrimination can be compensated either within injury to feelings or as a separate award for psychiatric injury. This sits within the general compensation framework for discrimination claims under what is now the Equality Act 2010The main piece of legislation protecting employees from discrimination at work. It covers nine protected characteristics including age, disability, sex, race, and religion, and makes it unlawful for a....
HM Prison Service v Salmon. UKEAT/21/00. Employment Appeal Tribunal. April 2001.