Banco Santander Uk On Shaky Ethical Ground

Emilio Botin's Santander UK seems to be on precarious ethical ground in a landmark legal battle that has made UK history for a number of reasons.

Santander UK is the UK bank previously known as Abbey National. It was taken over by Emilio Botin's Banco Santander Group in 2004. The Abbey National name was changed to Santander UK in January 2010.

Santander UK had dismissed Balbinder Chagger, of Indian origin, from employment in 2004, apparently for reason of a compulsory redundancy due to cost-cutting requirements.

Balbinder Chagger, however, alleged that the actual motive behind his dismissal was racial discrimination and that the redundancy process was just a sham to target and remove him.

The matter came before an Employment Tribunal in 2006 which ruled that Santander UK had used its redundancy process to target and remove Mr Chagger from employment and that Santander UK had been motivated by race.

Santander UK was ordered to reinstate Mr Chagger in order to lessen the effects of its unlawful conduct. However, Santander UK refused to comply with the Employment Tribunal's order, for reasons that failed to satisfy the Employment Tribunal; the Employment Tribunal ruled that Santander UK had failed to comply with the order.

Mr Chagger tried to lessen the impact of Santander UK's unethical conduct by applying for a number of other positions at Santander UK itself. Banco Santander UK, however, rejected his job applications. Mr Chagger also offered to work without pay in a number of Santander UK's departments in order to increase his employment prospects elsewhere. Santander UK, however, refused his offers of voluntary work too.

The Employment Tribunal concluded that Banco Santander UK's unethical conduct had cost Mr Chagger both his career at Santander UK itself and also his career elsewhere in the banking sector. The Employment Tribunal proceeded to order Banco Santander UK to pay Mr Chagger the record £2.8 million compensation to cover the loss it had caused him.

In 2008, Santander UK tried to appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) against the racial discrimination finding. The appeal failed; the EAT upheld the original Employment Tribunal's judgement that Santander UK had unlawfully racially discriminated against Mr Chagger.

It appears that Santander UK has conceded that it had unlawfully racially discriminated against Mr Chagger. It now seems to be concerned only with reducing the record-breaking £2.8 million amount of loss the Employment Tribunal assessed Santander UK's unethical conduct had caused Mr Chagger.