Ms Janette Parsons v Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Children’s Trust: 1304537/2017 and others
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 08 October 2019 |
| Citation | 1304537/2017 and others |
| Court | Employment Tribunal |
| Published date | 22 October 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Sex Discrimination |
Case Numbers: 1304537/2017; 1304538/2017; 1304539/2017; 1304540/2017
1300322/2018; 1300324/2018; 130325/2018
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EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS
Claimant Respondent
Ms Janette Parsons
v
(1) Birmingham City Council;
(2) Birmingham Children’s Trust
Heard at: Bury St Edmunds
On: 23 – 26 April 2019; 29 April – 3 May 2019; 7 – 9 May 2019
Before: Employment Judge Tynan
Members: Ms Sarah Stones and Ms Lorraine Gaywood
Appearances
For the Claimant: In person
For the Respondent: Ms Hodgetts, Counsel
RESERVED JUDGMENT
1. The Claimant’s various claims against the Respondents that she was
harassed, directly discriminated against and/or victimised contrary to
sections 26, 13 and 27 of the Equality Act 2010 are not well founded and
are dismissed.
2. The Tribunal declares that the Claimant’s complaint under section 48(1A) of
the Employment Rights Act 1996 that the First Respondent subjected her to
detriment by its failure to investigate and reach a conclusion on her
protected disclosure, and that it did so on the ground that she had made a
protected disclosure, is well founded.
3. The Claimant’s various other complaints against the Respondents pursuant
to section 48(1A) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 that they subjected
her to detriments on the ground that she had made a protected disclosure
are not well founded and are dismissed.
Case Numbers: 1304537/2017; 1304538/2017; 1304539/2017; 1304540/2017
1300322/2018; 1300324/2018; 130325/2018
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RESERVED REASONS
4. The Claimant brings this claim in her own right, though her services were
provided to Birmingham City Council through a personal services company,
Janette Parsons Ltd. For the sake of simplicity, the references to the
Claimant in this judgment cover both the Claimant in her personal capacity
as the person bringing claims in these proceedings and as the director,
owner and controlling mind of Janette Parsons Limited. Where it is
important to make the distinction we shall do so. Likewise, for the sake of
simplicity, we refer to the Second Respondent as the Trust, including during
the period when it was operating in shadow form (and was not therefore a
discrete legal entity) and before that when it was essentially a small
grouping of individuals working at or for Birmingham City Council who were
tasked with establishing a shadow Trust. Finally, we shall largely refer to
Birmingham City Council as the Council.
5. The Claimant complains that she suffered harassment related to the
protected characteristics of age, disability and sex, alternatively that the
facts and matters which she says constituted harassment amounted to less
favourable treatment because of the same protected characteristics. She
further complains that she was subjected to various detriments because she
did a number of protected acts and because she made a number of
protected disclosures. Her claims are denied in their entirety by the
Respondents. Neither Respondent seeks to run the statutory defence
available to it under section 109 of the Equality Act 2010.
6. It is not necessary for us to go into detail regarding the history of these
proceeding. The Claimant issued three separate sets of proceedings, in her
own right and on behalf of Janette Parsons Ltd, against multiple
Respondents. These were consolidated and the matters which have
eventually come before us are those brought by the Claimant in her personal
capacity against the Council and the Trust.
7. It is important we record that following a hearing on 11 December 2018
Employment Judge Harris determined as a preliminary issue that the
Claimant was, at the material time, a disabled person within the meaning of
section 6 of the Equality Act 2010. Later in this Judgment we return to the
relevant findings by Employment Judge Harris.
8. We heard evidence from the Claimant in support of her Claims. She
provided written submissions at the conclusion of the evidence and spoke
to these. We have considered those submissions throughout our
discussions and in coming to a Judgment.
9. For the Respondent we heard evidence from:
9.1 Mr Andrew Christie, Chair of the Trust. Mr Christie chaired the
appointment panel that interviewed the Claimant on 17 May 2017 and
decided that she should be offered an engagement.
Case Numbers: 1304537/2017; 1304538/2017; 1304539/2017; 1304540/2017
1300322/2018; 1300324/2018; 130325/2018
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9.2 Mr Alastair Gibbons. Mr Gibbons was the Executive Director of
Children’s Services at the Council, though transferred to the Trust on
1 April 2018 and remained there until he retired on 30 September
2018. Mr Gibbons was the Claimant’s line manager during her first
two months at the Council and later acted as the commissioning
officer of an investigation into grievances raised by her on her own
behalf and in relation to her company. In so far as it may be relevant
to do so, we note that Mr Gibbons has a visible disability.
9.3 Ms Rebecca Ellis. Ms Ellis was an interim Senior HR Business
Partner at the Council.
9.4 Mr Andy Couldrick. Mr Couldrick is the Chief Executive of the Trust.
He joined the Trust on 14 August 2017.
9.5 Mr John Harrison. Mr Harrison was the Interim Director of Resources
at the Trust from 21 August 2017 to September 2018. He initially
took over responsibility for managing the Claimant from Mr Gibbons
when he joined the organisation, though he subsequently stepped
back from his responsibilities in this regard when the Claimant raised
concerns about his conduct on 29 September 2017.
9.6 Ms Dawn Hewins. Ms Hewins is the Council’s HR Director. She
initially handled the Claimant’s concerns when these arose in late
September/early October 2017, before they were then referred for
external investigation.
9.7 Ms Sarah Sinclair. Ms Sinclair is the Interim Assistant Director
Children’s Services (Commissioning) at the Council. Her evidence
largely addressed the question of whether she had experienced sex
discrimination or harassment at the Council. Her evidence was that
she had not.
9.8 Mr Peter Featherstone. Mr Featherstone joined the Trust on 18
September 2017 as Interim Implementation Manager.
9.9 Mr David Johnson. Mr Johnson provides HR consultancy services
and was appointed in 2018 to undertake an investigation into the
Claimant’s concerns, reporting his findings in June 2018.
We also had written statements from Ms Debbie Husler and Mr Colin
Diamond.
The Issues
10. Regrettably, there was no agreed List of Issues. In arriving at our Judgment,
we have worked within the framework of the fourth iteration of the Claimant’s
List of Issues which she submitted on the final day of the hearing as part of
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