A former Lloyds Bank employee who claimed he was discriminated against for being a “white heterosexual male” has had his case thrown out by a judge.
The claimant, referred to as Mr B Drummond in court filings, has accused the UK’s largest high street bank of discriminating against “white heterosexual males” after he scored poorly at work and missed out on various jobs.
He argued that because of “direct sex and race discrimination” he was ranked in the bottom 5pc of large corporate employees, was put at risk of redundancy and was rejected for a secondment.
He also claimed that he missed out on a job as a result of “race discrimination” as the successful candidate was “not white British”, and said individuals involved in his complaints were a “close-knit management group” who “operated under the same cultural mores”.
The employee waited over a year to take his case to the employment tribunal because he was worried that Lloyds could “sabotage” his chances of finding a job elsewhere, a delay which meant he missed the official deadline to file such claims and his case was dismissed.
Judge Jonathan Brain did not grant him an extension, arguing that his explanation that he waited because he feared Lloyds could sabotage his next role was not a satisfactory one because he started his new job before the deadline was reached.
Judge Brain also argued that the claimant seemed smart enough to find out what the time limits were for himself. He said: “He [the claimant] has achieved very impressive grades in secondary school culminating in a degree with a very prestigious university.”
He said an extension would also mean gathering evidence about a complex redundancy which took place almost two years ago, meaning witnesses would suffer from “memory fade”.
Judge Brain said: “I would need much more evidence than I have before me about the redundancy exercise and job application exercises.
“To entertain detailed evidence about these matters would be to conduct a mini trial.”
Mr Drummond could not be reached for comment. Lloyds declined to comment.
