Employee Sanctions / Dismissals related to acts of discrimination
Request ID: FOI-2521-2122 Date published: 25 February 2022
You asked
1. From the last 3 years to date how many directly employed TfL employees were sanctioned and dismissed on misconduct/gross misconduct charges related to any acts of discrimination.
2. How many employees were dismissed and later reinstated?
3. Do TfL employees have access to unconcious bias training or similar to equality/discrimination awareness training or educational programmes for its employees?
4. Are there are corrective procedures for staff who have been disciplined or suspected of acts of discrimination but not proven?
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-2521-2122
Thank you for your request received on 2 February 2022 asking for information about employee sanctions/dismissals related to acts of discrimination.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require. You asked:
1. From the last 3 years to date how many directly employed TfL employees were sanctioned and dismissed on misconduct/gross misconduct charges related to any acts of discrimination. 2. How many employees were dismissed and later reinstated?
To provide the information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described. We have estimated that it would cost in excess of £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take over 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.
We do not record the information you have requested centrally. In order to collate the requested information we would have to look at all of the cases of disciplinaries (where an employee may be sanctioned and dismissed following a charge of misconduct or gross misconduct. There have been 7525 such cases over the past three years. We would need to individually review each case to determine whether they were related to discrimination and the subsequent outcome of the case and any later actions such as reinstatement. To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. For example, by narrowing the timeframe significantly. Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, TfL does not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request. Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request. 3. Do TfL employees have access to unconscious bias training or similar to equality/discrimination awareness training or educational programmes for its employees?
TfL employees have access to a wide variety of training courses, including ones on “Unconscious Bias” through our online learning portal and ‘Valuing People’ training (in-person course). All managers and new starters must complete the ‘Valuing People’ training and it is strongly encouraged for all staff to redo the course approximately every three years. There are also peer to peer coaching programmes, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic mentoring circles etc which exist on a local level and help to raise awareness of issues around Equality, Diversity & Inclusion.
4. Are there are corrective procedures for staff who have been disciplined or suspected of acts of discrimination but not proven?
TfL has disciplinary processes in place to address employees who do not follow the policies and procedures. This includes a range of options available which can be undertaken if found to be proven. We do not take action against employees who have been charged but not proven of conducting “suspected acts of discrimination” as corrective procedures.
If this is not the information you are looking for please feel free to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
