Youth Discrimination Project Over the past year we have experienced a significant increase in our caseload and the number of enquiries we have taken. This demonstrates that young BME people are more confident in coming forward to seek advice from us and are becoming more aware of their rights in the field of discrimination. It also indicates that our partner organisations feel confident to refer clients onto us for advice and assistance.
Kenny and Amber attending a transitions workshop for Primary 7 pupils at Govanhill Primary School earlier this year
YDP Case Study Ms. X was employed as a part-time sales assistant. She was verbally racially abused and harassed by her Line Manager on a number of occasions. Ms. X reported the abuse to Senior Management within the company but they failed to investigate her complaint. Ms. X subsequently consulted the Youth Discrimination Project for advice as she was dissatisfied with the manner in which her complaint had been handled by the company. We assisted Ms. X with lodging a grievance which was partially upheld by her employer. We also drafted and served a Race Relations Questionnaire (RRQ) on Ms. X’s employer. It was necessary to serve a RRQ on the employer as the response to the Questionnaire allowed us to establish whether there was sufficient evidence to prove race discrimination. The response to the RRQ unearthed that Ms. X’s employer had not followed company policy and procedure when investigating her initial complaint of racial discrimination. Employment Tribunal proceedings were subsequently initiated. We attended a Case Management Discussion at the Employment Tribunal on behalf of Ms. X to discuss the procedural aspects of the case. However, the case did not proceed to a full merits hearing as we successfully managed to negotiate an out of court settlement for the client.
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