Facts

Janette Parsons (Ms Parsons) started work with Birmingham City Council (the Council) and Birmingham Children’s Trust (the Trust) in June 2017. She was engaged on a temporary contract until December 2017 and held the role of HR and Organisational Development Consultant. She had previously worked at a children’s trust, and she was the only person working on the project with direct experience of establishing such a trust. She was 59 at the date of the relevant events.

Within a few weeks of starting work, Ms Parsons started to get on badly with her colleagues, specifically Ms Rebecca Ellis, an Interim HR Business Partner.  She sent Ms Ellis “unfriendly… conflictual, communications”.  

Ms Parsons alleged that from this point onwards she began to be subjected to age discrimination by Mr Harrison, a new recruit whom she had advised against hiring. She alleged that, in a meeting on 29 August 2017, he said to others “let’s keep Janette out of the staff engagement”.

Ms Parsons also claimed that she was subjected to age discrimination by Ms Ellis. In an email of 30 August 2017, Ms Ellis provided advice to one of the members of the Trust that Ms Parsons thought was outside of her expertise. Ms Parsons also said that any advice she gave to Mr Harrison was not given appropriate consideration. In September, she met with a manager and raised concerns that Ms Ellis was out of her depth and that the Trust was like a “Boy’s Club”.

On her last day at the Trust, Ms Parsons emailed a manager accusing him of denying her work and removing work from her and her company. She felt that “younger male contractors without disability” were more valued than she was. She also asserted that Mr Harrison discriminated against her in relation to her daily rate, even though he had no role in deciding what this was. 

The issues she raised prompted a report by the Trust, which was finalised in July 2018.  The report dismissed all complaints, and Ms Parsons was not given a right of appeal. Ms Parsons subsequently presented several claims to the Employment Tribunal (ET) throughout the course of 2018 and 2019 for disability, sex and age discrimination, victimisation, harassment and whistleblowing.

Decision

The ET rejected Ms Parsons’ claim of age discrimination.

The ET held that she had failed to identify suitable comparators, and she had failed to put forward evidence and establish facts from which discrimination could be inferred. They considered that the incidents she raised were justified by the explanations provided by those involved - there was no reason for Ms Parsons to be included in the email of the 30 August 2017, and there was no evidence of a “boys’ club”.  The ET was satisfied that the Council and the Trust would have treated any other individual in the same way in the same circumstances.  This meant that the burden of proof did not shift to the Council and the Trust to show they did not discriminate.

The ET further remarked that Ms Parsons assumed that people had discriminatory motives without considering whether this was warranted, and that bringing claims based on her own feelings with little evidence was not justified. When she was questioned about why she thought she was subject to direct age discrimination, she simply replied that she “assumed that managers were aware of her age”, which did not explain any motivation for treating her differently.

The full judgment is available here.

Ms Janette Parsons v Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Children’s Trust 1304537/2017; 1304538/2017; 1304539/2017; 1304540/2017; 1300322/2018; 1300324/2018; 130325/2018