In Chagger v Abbey National plc the Employment Appeals Tribunal handed down guidance when calculating financial loss in discrimination cases.
The Court of Appeal held that when an employee is dismissed on discriminatory grounds, the dismissing employer remains liable for ‘stigma damages'.
In principal, the employee can claim stigma damages to reflect the fact that other employers might be unwilling to hire them given that they have brought discrimination proceedings.
It further held that in a discriminatory dismissal case, an employment tribunal can also reduce any compensatory award to reflect the fact that the employee would have been dismissed in any event if there had been no discrimination.
