Another serious race discrimination case involving a public body
There seems to be a spate at the moment of serious and expensive discrimination cases involving NHS Trusts. Over the last decade many people have complained about the huge increase in management roles and levels within these trusts. With a lot of managers, often comes politics and some unfortunate machiovellian type tactics in our experience, but the following case, reported this week, clearly is at the worst end of the spectrum.
The successful applicant to the Employment tribunal was awarded almost £1 million based on racial discrimination which caused him to leave his career and effectively needed his career. He was dismissed from the role of director of Central Manchester University NHS Foundation.
The applicant, Mr Browne had a 34 year career in the NHS. In 2007, concerns were raised about alleged overspending and poor management by Mr Browne. He responded by alleging that such concerns were unmerited and founded on race discrimination. As often happens in these situations, once a claim and counterclaim had been made, the relationship deteriorated but in this case, the Tribunal decided that certain senior members of staff closed ranks against Mr Browne and started disciplinary process which ultimately resulted in dismissal.