After failing to reappoint an Indian lecturer to a job she had been doing for the previous five years, Southampton Employment Tribunal has concluded that the University of Portsmouth racially discriminated against her.
The Tribunal heard that Dr Sharma started a five-year fixed-term contract as Associate Head for Organisational Studies and Human Resources Management in the Business and Law faculty at the University of Portsmouth in 2016.
Although she was aware that she would have to reapply if she wanted to continue in the role, when her contract was almost up for renewal, she was not alerted to the fact that her job had been advertised.
Dr Sharma reapplied for the post and she and one other candidate were interviewed for the role. The two final interviewees were Dr Sharma and a white British woman, who was subsequently offered the job.
Sitting on the interview panel was Dr Sharma’s Line Manager, Prof Gary Rees, with whom the tribunal was told, Dr Sharma had a “difficult” relationship. Dr Sharma told the Tribunal that she had complained about the way she was treated by Prof Rees on a number of occasions in the past, such as when she had been asked about work-related items directly after the death of her father and how he had failed to support her adequately while she was caring for her critically ill son.
Dr Sharma also claimed that Prof Rees had backed a white colleague to take a further higher education qualification but had discouraged her from doing so.
On failing the interview process, Dr Sharma submitted a freedom of information request to the university, which revealed she was one of only two senior lecturers who were not reappointed to their roles when their contract came to an end. Of 12 academic senior management vacancies that had arisen since 2018, 11 had successfully been reappointed and all 12 were white candidates. Dr Sharma was the only BAME candidate who had reapplied for their post and been unsuccessful.
The Tribunal found there was no evidence that the new person given the role would have been a better fit than Dr Sharma and that the university had not been able to show the selection process had not been motivated by race. They decided that Prof Rees had treated Dr Sharma differently to white colleagues and the fact that she was not reappointed to her job was “extraordinary”.
Employment Judge Elizabeth Rayner said:
“We conclude that this is a case of subconscious discrimination. Whilst Prof Rees is clearly a respected senior academic his reluctance to recognise the skills and abilities and aspirations of Dr Sharma, and his failure to support and encourage her in the way that he supported and encouraged other white members of staff, points towards a subconscious or unconscious bias. We conclude that his involvement in the recruitment process and his subconscious bias means that the failure to recruit claimant was an act of race discrimination.”
A hearing to decide on compensation will take place at a later date.
