- Suggests moving to an inquisitorial rather than adversarial system for employment disputes, in light of Royal Mail v Efobi, a race discrimination case where a postal worker was turned down for more than 20 IT/management jobs despite having suitable qualifications.
The employee, Mr Efobi, worked for Royal Mail and applied for promotion within the company on several occasions. Usually he was rejected without interview; occasionally he was rejected following interview. So far as could be seen he was at least equal in qualification, experience and performance to the successful candidates.
The employee claimed race discrimination. He was black, whereas the other candidates were white. The application form asked about ethnicity; or anyway the employer very probably would have known of the ethnicity of the candidates. He contended it was more than coincidence, and was obviously race discrimination. He proved the above facts, the bare facts. He invited the tribunal to draw an adverse inference. The tribunal declined. The Supreme Court agreed (Royal Mail Group Ltd
