Tribunal awards £4,000 to job applicant in claim over Muslim headscarf

17 06 2008 United Kingdom

The owner of a small hairdressing business fought her case against a £34,000 claim by a job applicant for religious discrimination, but has to pay £4,000 for ‘injured feelings’

Sarah Desrosiers runs a trendy hair salon North London and she advertised for an assistant sylist. She turned down a job applicant who wore a headscarf because she needed her staff to display their hairstyles when they were at work.

Now she has lost tens of thousands of pounds in income for her hairdressing business following a claim brought before an employment tribunal.

The job applicant, Bushra Noah, brought a case of religious discrimination, claiming that her headscarf is essential to her Muslim beliefs and would not affect her work. She sued Sarah Desrosiers for lost earnings plus £15,000 for injury to her feelings.

The Central London tribunal heard that Ms Desrosiers agreed to give her an interview but was astonished when she found Ms Noah wore a headscarf. Ms Noah said that she was ‘devastated’ that she was turned down for the job as assistant hairstylist because she insisted on wearing a headscarf.

Ms Desrosiers explained that refusing the job to Ms Noah was not about religion and denied that any discrimination was involved. "I never in a million years dreamt that somebody would be completely against the display of hair and be in this industry,” she said.

Earlier this year, Sarah faced a tribunal hearing lasting three days, including four hours of cross-examination. The tribunal’s decision was deferred until June.

The tribunal has now ruled it was 'satisfied that Bushra was not treated less favourably than Sarah would have treated any woman who, whether Muslim or not, wears a hair covering at all times when at work'.

The tribunal panel also recognised that promoting the image of the business was a ‘legitimate aim’ but found there had been ‘indirect discrimination’ and awarded £4,000 compensation to Ms Noah for her injured feelings. The judgement said there was no specific evidence of what effect it would have had on the hair salon’s image and its business if Ms Noah had worn her headscarf.

It is not clear whether the tribunal’s finding of ‘indirect discrimination’ and ‘injury to feelings’ came from reports in the press about the case or the fact the claimant was turned down for the job.

The owner of the salon estimates she lost £40,000 in income while fighting the case. According to one comentator, the case should never have come to court and Ms Noah’s award of £4,000 for injured feelings was far too much. She had been turned down for similar jobs previously.

Sarah Desrosiers has spent her savings on her legal battle and is now faced with finding the £4,000 she has been ordered to pay as compensation. Her savings have already been spent on her legal fees.

“I am a one-woman band,' Sarah told the Daily Mail, “and am already in debt due to the set-up costs of opening my own salon. I dread to think how many haircuts I'm going to have to do to earn the £4,000 I have to pay Bushra. This has, without doubt, been the worst year of my life.”

Her lawyers are advising her on whether she can appeal.

You can read more about this claim here - Small business owner sued for discrimination over headscarf

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