Two members of staff who were amongst those dismissed by a care home have won a racial discrimination claim against their former employer.

The dismissals were executed by the care home after medication had been inappropriately administered to a patient residing in the care home, and involved members of staff including a white senior manager, a deputy manager who is Asian and a care worker of African descent.

The employees were dismissed from the care home as a result of an investigation into an incident involving a patient to whom medicine was inappropriately administered. According to the regulations of the care home, a supervisory document was required to be signed by a doctor before changing a patient's medication. After this document was signed, it was required to be checked every time before staff were able to administer the medication.

The incident in question saw the documentation that had been signed off for one patient going missing. While it was the responsibility of the manager to ensure that the relevant documentation was present and correct, the deputy manager volunteered to resolve the problem.

On the following day, the relevant documentation had still not been either found or resubmitted. Despite the lack of presence of the signed document, medicine was administered to the patient, in an incident that was witnessed by the manager and was signed off by the deputy manager.

As a result of this incident, an investigation was launched by the care home. This investigation led to both the care worker and the deputy manager being dismissed by the care home, and a six-month warning issued to the manager involved.

The two employees who were dismissed took legal action against the care home, suing for race discrimination. While they concurred that their actions could be deemed to be a sackable offence, falling under the category of gross misconduct, they were unhappy about being treated differently to the manager. Their view was that the manager was a more senior member of staff and equally as guilty, but was given a far less harsh punishment. It was their belief that this constituted racial discrimination.

The tribunal ruled in favour of the two dismissed workers - a decision that has been upheld by the Employment Appeal Tribunal. The Tribunal found that the two different employee punishments had not been adequately explained to those involved, and that there were no mitigating circumstances in the manager's case that provided justification for her warning as opposed to the sacking of the other two employees.