The EAT overturns “excessive” compensatory award for injury to feelings

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) in Graham v Eddie Stobart (2025) has recently handed down a judgement to reduce an award for injury to feelings in a discrimination case from £10,000 to £2,000, labelling the initial award as “excessive”.

Background

Ms Graham was working for Eddie Stobart’s Newhouse depot and was informed of the decision to make her redundant in March 2022. The redundancy was due to reorganisation within the business; however she was on maternity leave at the time she found out about her redundancy.

Ms Graham sought to rely on her rights under Regulation 10 of the Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations 1999, which states that a person who is being made redundant whilst on maternity leave ““is entitled to be offered (before the end of her employment under her existing contract) alternative employment with her employer or an associated employer, in any suitable vacancy available that offers work appropriate for her and terms not substantially worse than her previous job”. However, her employer did not think any of the alternative roles were suitable for Ms Graham.

Ms Graham disagreed, and sought to apply for an alternative role within the business but she was made to undergo a competitive interview for the role. Ms Graham was rejected for the role and subsequently raised a grievance as a result. However, due to an issue with the company’s IT systems, her grievance was never addressed. Her employment ended in May 2022.

The Employment Tribunal (ET)

Ms Graham bought a claim for unfair dismissal but this was rejected by the Tribunal as it also deemed the alternative role was not suitable for her. The ET did, however, uphold her detriment claim under Section 47C of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and her claim for discrimination on the grounds of her pregnancy/maternity under Section 18 of the Equality Act 2010 on the basis that the company failed to adequately deal with her grievance and this therefore amounted to discriminatory treatment. Ms Graham was awarded £10,000 by the ET for injury to feelings based upon evidence that she was upset by the way she had been treated and the company’s failure to take her grievance seriously.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT)

Eddie Stobart Ltd appealed against the decision on the following grounds:

• The failure to address her grievance properly was an isolated incident and therefore, the £10,000 award was disproportionate to the harm she suffered given the lack of evidence to support her injury; and
• The ET had failed to justify why it awarded Ms Graham such a substantial sum

The EAT upheld the appeal, agreeing with Eddie Stobart Ltd that the award was “excessive and not adequately reasoned”  and agreed that the evidence produced at Tribunal of her alleged injury to feelings was minimal. No indication had been made during the ET hearing that her personal or professional life had been effected by what had happened. Judge Barry Clarke stated that “the aim is to compensate for genuinely injured feelings, not to punish an employer for bad management or poor personnel practice”. The EAT ordered Eddie Stobart Ltd to pay Ms Graham a reduced compensatory sum of £2,169 (inclusive of interest) which they said reflected the scope of the unlawful behaviour, given they acknowledged that Miss Graham was upset as a result of having to follow up on the status of her grievance whilst she was on maternity leave.

Key take-aways for employers

• Ensure to handle grievances in a timely manner, especially when an employee is on maternity or paternity leave to avoid any claims for discrimination or detriment
• Ensure all HR systems are up-to-date and are checked regularly, to ensure that employees on maternity leave are not forgotten about
• An employee who succeeds in their discrimination claim is likely to be awarded compensation for injury to feelings occasioned by the discrimination, but the award is likely to be in lower (Vento) bands for isolated one off incidents.

If you require any assistance with any of the issues mentioned in this article, do not hesitate to contact the Employment team at Thomson Snell & Passmore.