£3725 for gay discrimination

The Pink News and Personnel Today both report the case of Sean Williams v Woodhaven Residential Home. The details are sketchy but the employee got an award of £3725 after being sacked without any procedure and in a discriminatory way because he was gay. The Home claimed he was sacked for poor performance and that he had received a police caution for not paying a taxi fare (not "fair" as one of the reports alarmingly spells it). This defence didn't really work as the employee was able to show that a straight employee had committed a similar offence and had not been subject to disciplinary processes. The killer evidence was from a former manager at the Home who said that the boss turned on the employee when she found out he was gay. The compensation figure seems low but this may reflect the low wages in the care sector and his ability to find another job.