Claimant alleging racial discrimination while serving as a soldier - failure to comply with army's internal complaints procedure before applying to employment tribunal - tribunal declining jurisdiction - no reliance on Human Rights Convention

Mangera v Ministry of Defence: CA (Lords Justice Peter Gibson, Tuckey and Buxton): 19 May 2003

The claimant applied to an employment tribunal with a complaint of racial discrimination under section 4(2) of the Race Relations Act 1976, relating to his time as a serving soldier.

The tribunal found that because he had not first presented a complaint under the army's internal procedures, as laid down by statute, it had no jurisdiction to entertain the complaint.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal dismissed his appeal.

It was argued before the Court of Appeal, as a preliminary point, that article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights entitled him to pursue the claim, irrespective of the fact that he had not presented an earlier complaint to the army.

Rajeev Thacker (instructed by Ramsbottom & Co, Blackburn) for the claimant; Thomas Linden (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) for the defendant.

Held, dismissing the appeal, that article 6 did not apply to a claim of discrimination under section 4(2) of the 1976 Act brought by a public servant and by a serving soldier in particular; that therefore, where a claimant made a claim under section 4(2), relating to the army's failure during his service as a soldier to give him halal meat, he had first to comply with the army's internal redress procedures; that failure to do so meant an employment tribunal had no jurisdiction to hear the claim; and that the claimant could not rely on article 6 to alter that outcome.