An employment tribunal has dismissed a discrimination claim brought by a computing teacher at a Buckinghamshire grammar school, ruling that a misspelling of her surname was a simple typing error and unrelated to her race.
Chandrika Punshon, who is Indo-Canadian, raised a complaint against the Royal Latin School after being given a username in September 2022 that included an incorrect version of her surname.
The error, made during the setup of her access to the school’s exams system, resulted in her name being recorded as “cpunshan”.
‘Not a deliberate act’
The tribunal, held in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, was told the mistake was quickly corrected by the school’s exams manager Mary Biltcliffe, who apologised and explained the misspelling was due to being “busy at the time”. The panel accepted that the error was a typographical one, not a deliberate act, and noted that Biltcliffe had never met Mrs Punshon prior to the incident and had no direct knowledge of her race.
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Mrs Punshon had claimed that the inclusion of the letter “a” was an “over-generalisation of Hindi words such as Himalayas”. However, it was also established during the hearing that “Punshon” is her married name and is of English origin.
In its written judgment, the tribunal stated, “Mrs Punshon appeared to accept in her closing submissions that this was simply a typing error.” The panel went on to say that the complaint was based on an incorrect assumption and that “there were no persistent mistakes in spelling her surname”.
‘No evidence’ of racial motivation
It was also noted that Mrs Punshon herself had repeatedly misspelled the surname of a colleague, Jason Skyrme, despite having met him and knowing who he was. The tribunal found this undermined her argument that the error in her own name had racial connotations.
Rejecting the claim, the tribunal stated, “Mrs Punshon’s surname is in any event an English name and not Indo-Canadian, therefore the misspelling of that name had nothing whatsoever to do with her race.”
Mrs Punshon’s other claims, including a direct race discrimination claim, direct sex discrimination, harassment related to race and harassment related to sex, were all dismissed by the tribunal. The panel noted that the factual basis of her complaints was not supported by evidence.
