Damages for Discrimination

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Remedies at a tribunal

An employment tribunal can award one or more of three remedies if it finds that an individual has been a victim of religious or belief discrimination:

a declaration which is an order declaring what the rights of the parties are;
compensation;
a recommendation that the employer should take certain steps to remove or reduce the discrimination.

Compensation

Unlike in unfair dismissal, there is no ceiling on the amount of compensation a tribunal can award for religious or belief discrimination. Compensation normally includes an award for injury to feelings and an award to take into account any loss suffered, for example loss of wages or pension. The awards for injury to feelings can vary, however many thousands of pounds is not uncommon. The Court of Appeal have set out 3 bands of compensation guidelines for injury to feelings, depending on the seriousness of the case. These are commonly known as the ” Vento” guidelines, and from 6th April 2020, they are:

TOP BAND FOR THE MOST SERIOUS CASES: £27,000 – £45,000 (although it can exceed this in exceptional cases);

MIDDLE BAND: £9,000 – £27,000

LOWER BAND FOR LESS SERIOUS CASES (e.g. a one-off or isolated incident of discrimination): £900 – £9,000

The Act imposes strict time limits throughout the procedure for bringing a case for religious or belief discrimination. Good cases can be lost before they start through hesitation or delay.

The time limit for making a claim for racial discrimination to the employment tribunal is three months from the act of discrimination. It is now mandatory to go through ACAS’s early conciliation scheme before you can submit a claim to the tribunal.

A discriminatory act may extend over a period of time so that it may be a continuing act if it takes the form of some policy, rule or practice in accordance with which decisions are taken by the employer. In these circumstances the three month period runs from the end of the continuing act. Please click here for more information.

Tribunals do have discretion to allow late claims to proceed, but there must be exceptional reasons why a claim was not made in time.