Claims against individual discriminators and harassers
[ch 7: page 284]Claims for discrimination can be brought against individuals in the course of their employment such as line managers or members of a recruitment panel, as well as the employer. See Course of employment, page 250.
Even if the employer can establish a statutory defence by showing that it took “all reasonable steps” to prevent the discriminatory act (see page 249), individual employees can remain liable (section 110(2), EA 10, Barlow v Stone [2012] UKEAT/0049/12/MAA).
Where an individual’s discriminatory acts lead to dismissal (for example, a manager's discriminatory decision to put an employee on a performance improvement plan, leading to their dismissal), the individual discriminator can potentially be held personally liable for all the resulting losses, including lost earnings where relevant (CLFIS v Reynolds [2015] EWCA Civ 439).
An employee will not be personally liable if they reasonably relied on a statement by the employer that doing an act would not contravene the EA 10 (section 110(3), EA 10). (See Compensation, page 285)