THREE white police officers have won a discrimination battle after being unfairly passed over for promotion because of their race.
Detective Inspector Phillip Turner-Robson, Inspector Graham Horton and Kirsteen Bishop, a custody inspector, brought the case to court.
The Thames Valley Police officers were looked over for a promotion
They claimed Thames Valley Police made them feel disadvantaged because of their race, which was described by the tribunal as “white British”.
The experienced officers had been working with the force for between 19 and 26 years when they were blocked from applying for the role of detective inspector.
In a bid to improve the diversity of its senior staff, a Thames Valley Police superintendent was told to “make it happen” by appointing an “Asian” sergeant instead.
This was despite the force being warned about the legal risks of not holding a competitive process.
Employment Judge Robin Postle concluded the officers were directly discriminated by reason of the protected characteristic of race.
The court was told plans were discussed for a job advert for a detective inspector in the force’s “priority crime team” at Aylesbury in August 2022.
Superintendent Emma Baillie later made the decision to move Sergeant Sidhu into the role without carrying out any competitive process or advertising the vacancy to staff.
She had not even been promoted to inspector at the time she was made detective inspector after Deputy Chief Constable Jason Hogg and Supt Baillie “jumped the gun”.
The superintendent then tried to “retrospectively justify” the decision by saying the appointment came under a “BAME Progression Program which clearly did not exist at the time”.
She and DCC Hogg would have been “warned of the risk of operating such a policy”, the tribunal heard.
In his ruling, Judge Postle said: “The Superintendent made a decision to move Police Sergeant Sidhu into the detective inspector role without any competitive assessment process taking place,’ the Judge said.
“It went beyond mere encouragement, disadvantaging those officers who did not share Sergeant Sidhu’s protected characteristic of race and who were denied the opportunity to apply for the role.
“It was not a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
“Clearly, Superintendent Baillie was only focused on ‘making it work’ rather than carrying out a balancing exercise.
“Superintendent Baillie’s decision… clearly constituted positive discrimination.”
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