Racial Discrimination – Failure to Consider Applications from Non-EEA Nationals

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) upheld the Employment Tribunal's finding in Osborne Clark Services v Mr A Purohit UKEAT/0305/08 that a failure to consider applications from non-EEA nationals amounted to indirect race discrimination.

This case concerned an individual of Indian origin who had applied for a solicitor training contract with Osborne Clarke Services (OC). Despite having a first class degree and a 2.1 Masters degree, his application was not considered as OC had a policy not to consider applications for training contracts where applicants required permission from the UK Border Agency to work in the United Kingdom. This policy therefore affected non-EEA nationals who, by virtue of their immigration status, were not permitted to work in the United Kingdom.

As OC was unable to produce sufficient evidence to the EAT's satisfaction to justify their policy of not accepting applications for training contracts from non-EEA nationals, the EAT held that this amounted to indirect race discrimination.