Claims against individual discriminators and harassers

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 In the course of employment, page 260.

Even if the employer can establish a statutory defence by showing that it took “all reasonable steps” to prevent the discriminatory act (see page 258), individual employees can remain liable (section 110(2), EA 10, Barlow v Stone [2012] UKEAT/0049/12/MAA).

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).