Yorkshire council worker claimed he was ‘forced out’ by racial discrimination

Shaqib Juneja, who worked as an Education Safeguarding Officer until he resigned in April 2021, has taken legal action against the council and his discrimination claim was examined at an Employment Tribunal this week.

During the hearing, Mr Juneja said his managers humiliated him, undermined him and refused reasonable requests.

Elaine Banton, who represents Mr Juneja, said he was “at his wits end” and his line manager had “barely” spoken to him over four months.

“The reasons for his resignation were that he was forced out by the discrimination that he was subjected to,” she said.

He also claimed ethnic minority employees were being overlooked for promotions in the council’s Education Safeguarding Department and losing out to white applicants who were less qualified.

Mr Juneja submitted a grievance about the recruitment of a new manager for the Youth Offending Team, after he sat on the interviewing panel, and set out concerns about discrimination.

The council claimed it was investigating his claim, but Ms Banton said she has uncovered emails from the council’s legal department which show “that is a lie”.

“It is quite rare to find such compelling evidence of what is, I'm afraid to say, a cover up,” she said. “This is far from an oversight.”

Jane Callan, representing the council, said there was “no evidence of those procedures being infected by bias or racial race discrimination”.

She said Mr Juneja submitted the claim after he spoke to colleagues who were unhappy about having to compete against external candidates for senior positions.

During the hearing, Mr Juneja claimed that Asian employees were stripped of their responsibilities and their white counterparts were given managerial roles, when his department was restructured.

However, his line manager Kate Hopton said new jobs were created but only one member of staff was given a pay rise and the other employees saw “no changes to their terms and conditions or pay”.

Mr Juneja also claimed he had been told he was not eligible to apply for a more senior position and when his parents fell ill in April, he was refused compassionate leave and told he could not work from London for an extended period to be near them.

Ms Hopton said she advised him to take annual leave, as compassionate leave should only be used after a bereavement, and he could not move to London for a long period as he may be needed in Bradford.

The tribunal was told Mr Juneja was unfairly blamed for long-standing issues in the department by a manager and then “humiliated” the following month when he was told a training course he had developed would not be used.

But Ms Hopton said he had actually been praised for doing some “fantastic work” and the training course was not used because it had conflated two issues which would need to be covered separately.

“He was a fantastic asset to the team. He did some absolutely wonderful work and I repeatedly said that,” she added.

“I had no knowledge whatsoever of any issues at all, except the personal issues that he was suffering from. I was really supportive and he was very unwell at that point.”

The tribunal has concluded and the employment judge will issue a ruling in the coming months.