The selection process of a university which failed to reappoint an Indian lecturer to a role she held for years was “tainted by race discrimination”, an employment tribunal has ruled.
Kajal Sharma, who was hired as a senior lecturer at the University of Portsmouth in 2016 was not reappointed when her five-year contract ended but 11 out of her 12 white colleagues got their jobs again.
Taking note that a white candidate with no experience of her role was preferred over Sharma, the tribunal said she became a victim of subconscious discrimination.
When the case came up for hearing in Southampton, Sharma said she had a “difficult” relationship with her manager Gary Rees and she did not receive support from the workplace when her son was seriously ill.
In another instance, she was told to carry on with her university work in the immediate aftermath of her father’s death.
The tribunal also heard that Rees encouraged a white colleague to pursue an additional qualification but Sharma did get similar support.
As her job was advertised when her contract was nearing an end, she reapplied for the role and made it to the shortlist of two candidates. However, a selection panel comprising Rees preferred her rival candidate.
But she found out later that 11 out of 12 incumbents who had reapplied for their jobs in 2018 were selected.
Sharma was the only BAME candidate who reapplied for their post and was unsuccessful, the Guardian reported.
The tribunal said Rees had treated Sharma “in a way that we considered was different to the way he would have treated others, in areas such as support over her father’s death, and her child’s illness.”
“We conclude that his involvement in the recruitment process and his subconscious bias means that the failure to recruit the claimant was an act of race discrimination,” it said.
It also noted that the university ignored the fact that “a senior member of the academic staff who was a BAME woman was not reappointed to a post.”
