Shane Crawford outlines how, in cases of harassment, the ‘related to’ consideration requires attention to the context in which the putative act occurred
- The Employment Appeal Tribunal recently revisited the what ‘related to’ entails within the statutory definition of harassment under s 26 of the Equality Act 2010.
- It emphasised that it requires a ‘broader enquiry’ into the facts than for direct discrimination and that such an enquiry requires an ‘intense focus’ on the context in which a statement is uttered or the offending behaviour takes place.
A common addition to pleadings alleging direct discrimination is one of harassment. The two concepts are synonymous with overt acts of discrimination by an individual which are often factually hard fought between the accuser and the accused. The case of Bakkali v Greater Manchester Buses (South Limited) UKEAT/0176/17/RN, focused on the different causation tests for the two forms of discrimination and demonstrated that a comment which appeared conspicuously discriminatory based on race or religion was not harassment or directly discriminatory when placed in the context in which it arose.
The facts of the case
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