A WHISTLEBLOWER has won a tribunal claim after she walked out in protest when her boss refused to hire a black person for a £52,000-a-year role.

Caroline Hobbs, 55, was working as a receptionist for Avon Care Homes under regional manager Julia Rea and Cristina Bila, 60, the managing director.

As she gained experience Caroline began helping out with the hiring process and oversaw an interview for a manager's job with candidate Paulett (corr) Mills.

Despite impressing in the interview, Bila told Caroline that Paulett would not get the job - because she was black.

Caroline handed in her notice and refused to work another day after the incident, and has now won an employment tribunal against Bila.

"I'm chuffed because I was not hugely convinced that they wouldn't win and I don't know how I would have dealt with that," said Caroline.

"It had been months and months of sleepless nights worrying about it, and it's quite stressful - I didn't know the scale of it or how much work it would be."

Caroline pursued her former employer on the grounds of constructive unfair dismissal, following her decision to quit on April 8 last year.

She had been involved in trying to find a new manager for a care home, a positing which offered an attractive £52,000 per year salary.

Alongside Julia, the pair interviewed Paulett, from Bristol, without the input of Bila who was away at the time.

Julie was impressed by Paulett and offered her the job, subject to a second interview with Bila.

The tribunal heard that Caroline and Julia had fears over how Bila would react when she discovered the colour of Paulett's skin.

The pair worked on a script which would mention Paulett's ‘beautiful dark skin’ but not explicitly say she was black, the tribunal heard.

But when Bila returned from her holiday on Monday, April 9, she told the pair that she would not hire a black woman.

Caroline continued: "I was appalled, I didn't want to go along with it and I was not going to call the candidate to tell her she was going to get a second interview when I already knew the outcome.

"I told Mrs Bila she was acting illegally and she said she would interview her even though she wouldn't give her the job.

"It was because she was black, she said it didn't present the right image. Because she is a foreigner herself I think she thinks she can't be racist.

"She knew it was wrong because she told me this wasn't for public knowledge.

"It was common knowledge that Mrs Bila would never employ someone with a strong ethnic background.

"I'd had CVs through before and another member of the company said they wouldn't hire one candidate because she had an African name."

After the discussion, Caroline walked out and handed in her notice - stating that she would not work another day.

She has now taken Avon Care Homes to an employment tribunal, which was presided over by Judge Christa Christensen.

She said: “She exhibited signs of what I considered to be very genuine and deep distress when being questioned about the events at work which she says led to her decision to resign and how stressful she found the situation by reference to her concerns about race discrimination.

“The claimant understood that she was being instructed to set up an interview for Mrs Mills on the basis that Mrs Bila had predetermined that she would be rejected because she did not want to employ a black home manager.

“She had hoped, after her conversation with Mrs Rea on Friday April 5, that she may be able to persuade Mrs Bila to behave in a more positive manner if she explained to her that what she was proposing was illegal.

“When the claimant realised that this was not possible, she determined that she could no longer remain employed by the respondent.

"She could not countenance setting up an interview on that basis with (recruitment agency) Harben Green for Mrs Mills, knowing that Mrs Bila would not employ her because she was black.

“The claimant was deeply offended and upset at being asked to be complicit in such discriminatory work practices, she cleared her desk and left the office.

“The actions of Mrs Bila on Monday, April 8 utterly undermined the claimant’s ability to trust her employer; the claimant could not tolerate continuing to be employed on the basis that she was being instructed in terms to be complicit in recruitment practices that there were unlawful by reference to the provisions in the Equality Act relating to race discrimination."

The judge said Caroline's ‘continued employment was simply untenable after the attitude adopted by Mrs Bila in her conversation’, and ruled in her favour.

She added: “The claimant terminated her contract without notice in circumstances such that she was entitled to terminate it without notice by reason of her employer’s conduct.

"There was a fundamental breach of contract."