The Labour Court dismissed Tinashe Zakaria’s appeal against Musgrave Ltd T/A Musgrave Wholesale Partners, finding that he had not established discrimination on race or gender grounds. The determination was dated 17 August 2016, and the Equality Officer/Adjudication Officer’s decision stood.
Zakaria challenged the company’s refusal to select him for voluntary redundancy and other events at work. The Court found the selection was based on a skills matrix, not a last-in, first-out system; Zakaria scored second highest overall. It found he had not shown less favourable treatment on race or gender grounds and said earlier events before April 2011 were outside the time limit.
On discriminatory dismissal, the Court found the company was entitled to regard his employment as abandoned after he failed to return following notice. It found no evidence that he was treated less favourably because of race. Zakaria withdrew his age discrimination, victimisation and victimisatory dismissal complaints during the appeal.