News In Focus
6 December 2005
Council found guilty of racial discrimination
Glasgow City Council has been found guilty of racial discrimination in two landmark court cases.
The Court of Session found that both Kuldip Dhesi and Clarence Bvunzai - the first employees to use new European legal guidelines - were victims of racial discrimination after a five-year legal case following their failure to be promoted within the council.
Mr Dhesi, 44, a social sciences graduate, had applied for a job with an asylum seekers project, while Mr Bvunzai was the only black candidate for a job as a unit manager at Cheviot House, a residential care home for the elderly.
Both claimed the jobs went to people with fewer qualifications and took their cases to employment tribunals. Mr Dhesi and Mr Bvunzai won their cases, but the decisions were overturned when the council appealed. Yesterday, however, the Court of Session ruled that the two men had been discriminated against.
Mr Dhesi has since left the council. He said that the council had fiddled the recruitment process and the scores from the interviews. He added that the council was guilty of a collective failure to define aspects of institutional racism.
Mr Bvunzai is still employed by the council, but he said that the council ought to acknoweldge publicly that some council workers discriminated against others, particularly in his case because an Afro-Caribbean senior officer had contributed to the racist treatment he was subjected to.
Unison Scotland said the council needed to demonstrate a high level commitment to race equality, while the Commission for Racial Equality Scotland said the court's findings should act as a wake-up call to every local authority in Scotland.
A spokesperson for the council said they were looking at the judgment with senior counsel to conside the legal implications, which could involve an appeal to the House of Lords.