Booth v Delstar International Ltd [2023]

EAT holds ET erred by arriving at different conclusions in two discrimination claims based upon the same legal principles, and which could not both have been correct. HR manager failed to recognised that Claimant eligible under Respondent's income protection policy in relation to his disability, and this had led to a delay in applying for it, with HR manager instead looking at either dismissal or early ill-health retirement. Whilst ET allowed claim relating to delay in applying for income protection on basis that unfavourable treatment was caused by managers mistaken belief over eligibility, it rejected the attempted dismissal claim despite accepting that the unfavourable treatment had the same cause. EAT held "ET erred in focussing on a single cause (the manager’s belief at the ‘because of’ stage) when analysing the dismissal claim, while making findings in the delay claim which did not correspond to the ‘something’ relied on. These two errors, in combination, explain why the ET reached different decisions, which the representatives accepted could not both be correct." Accordingly, the case was remitted back to the ET.