People who purposely try to make money from “discrimination”

[Changerj]

Following on from a thread where the OP and her family had made several employers pay out for discrimination I went to see if there was a tread for it and it seems there is.

This is a man who make bogus job application and then sues on account of discrimination. One of his many bizarre reasons was this:

“He claimed he was unable to create his own password for the online application because he struggled to include a 'special character', such as an exclamation mark.”

“East London Employment Judge Gardiner in 2022 ruled AECOM should have let him apply orally, and awarded him £2,000 for hurt feelings plus £700 interest.”

Last year he got banned from making claims without prior agreement from a judge but not long after that article was published I found another case he was trying to get money for.

www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/serial-litigants-history-does-not-make-claim-vexatious-rules-tribunal/5120940.article

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13657029/amp/Professional-victim-disability-complaints-ordered-pay-vexatious-claims.html

Bump

what is your AIBU?

How's that going? 😄

As an employment lawyer I do see quite a few spurious claims, yes. Only a handful over the years that have come from recruitment - and the employees lost all of them - and of the spurious “in employment” claims, many of the Claimants have sued before.

Some people treat it like a hobby.

I was gutted that thread filled up because I wanted to hear more about the OP’s barefoot uncle and his medical need to waft his cheesy toes around the office.

There are very many very valid claims but yes, sad,y the employment tribunals are regularly frequented by trouble makers.

Yes, I’ve dealt with so many fake claims now (previously senior management in a large warehouse, now head of HR) I take any new ones with a pinch of salt - which isn’t really fair to those bringing a claim, but I’ve seen so many managers reputations tarnished, myself included, because someone is looking for a quick payout.

Stand outs were a guy repeatedly going on about his previous criminal convinction/prison time/sexual assaults he admitted he’d ‘learned from’ in an interview - I tried to move the conversation on multiple times - then turning round after we rejected him because clearly we were judging him on his spent offences. Oh, and a man claiming we were discriminating because he had a disability (5 separate absences/no-shows in his first 2 weeks) … only to change the story when he couldn’t come up with doctors letters to it was his wife who was disabled, he just needed time off work to support her at home… and then we discovered he wasn’t, nor had he ever been, married - and was living with his mum….

I'm invested in the claim from the bare footed office worker.

Let's hope he doesn't find clothes 'too painful to wear'.

Reminds me of an ex employee we had who thought a reasonable adjustment was to have unlimited time away from work during the day due to their disability. The reality was he worked one hour out of 7 and was surprised when we said we didn't accept that as reasonable.

Yes, we came upon one last year … took us to tribunal (we are Govt) … lost, like they have lost all the others - cost them nothing, cost you (the taxpayer) thousands. They have a habit of making spurious claims, I think they hope the company will settle.
My friend had one (again Government), from a serial “Disability Discrimination” litigant … applies for hundreds of jobs they aren’t qualified for, then sues anyone who doesn’t give them an interview.

Costs nothing for a litigant to take you to tribunal, and it’s almost impossible to get your costs back, despite them being vexatious.

Oh I hate these types when they are clearly in the wrong or do it on purpose!

People like to be outraged about everything nowadays. The slightest thing that makes them feel ‘discriminated against’ and they have to shout about it.
That thread yesterday was insane. I hope to god they were lying about getting a 35k payout from their employer for ‘not allowing them extra breaks’. If it’s true, with the rise of every other person being diagnosed as ND, we are doomed.

The law needs to change. It is ruining businesses. Surely people can see when someone has done it over and over.

And yes, I was also invested in the bare footed Uncle, on his 3rd job, 3rd time trying to claim something.

Does he wear shoes throughout the probation period and then at 6 months bam they’re off?

Small numbers of sensational cases is not a trend.