Stigma damages
by Sarah
In the case of Chagger v Abbey National 2009 the Court of Appeal held that the original employer could be responsible for the stigma caused to the Claimant by his dismissal on discriminatory grounds. The Court accepted the idea that new employers could be reluctant to employee individuals who had previously brought discrimination cases against their employer. It held that liability for stigma losses lies with the original employer despite the ability for the Claimant to bring a claim against the prospective new employer for victimisation.
The Claimant in this case had brought a successful claim for unfair dismissal and race discrimination. The Employment Tribunal were impressed by his attempts to mitigate as he had applied for over 100 positions using 26 recruitment agencies. The Tribunal commented that they had never seen such a well documented mitigation attempt. In the end he felt that another job in the financial services sector was unlikely and gave evidence of two specific examples where he thought that he was suffering stigma.
The Court of Appeal concluded that the payment of stigma damages in discrimination cases should not be an automatic payment as there should be some evidence before the Tribunal from which it can infer that stigma is playing a part in the difficulties the Claimant is having mitigating his losses.
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