RAF officer who said he was discriminated against for being Scottish male Christian wins his case against Ministry of Defence after being sacked

• RAF Wing Commander Allan Steele was sacked after complaining of bullying

An RAF officer who claimed he was discriminated against for being a Scottish, male Christian has won a victimisation case against the Ministry of Defence after top brass fired him following his complaints.

Wing Commander Allan Steele was sacked from the Royal Air Force after he made repeated accusations against 42 ‘mainly senior officers’ that he was the victim of ‘extreme bullying’.

An employment tribunal heard that Wg Cdr Steele – who worked as a lawyer for the RAF – had been given a written warning after he was convicted in court of ‘threatening and abusive’ behaviour in 2016.

In the aftermath of this, his relationship with his superiors began to deteriorate and over the next year he made a series of complaints including that he had been subject to derogatory comments for his accent and ‘religious observance’.

The air force’s top brass became increasingly frustrated at his ‘disruptive’ behaviour and decided to ‘get rid of him’ after a near 17 year career, the tribunal was told.

Wg Cdr Steele protested about a proposed posting to RAF Coningsby (pictured) in Lincolnshire, as he would be working underneath an officer he believed had been promoted over his head

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They claimed his commission was terminated because he could no longer work with others in the RAF.

But Wg Cdr Steele successfully sued the MoD over his dismissal and, following a 22 day hearing in which he represented himself, is now in line for compensation.

In a highly critical judgement, the tribunal said the behaviour of top brass had been ‘astounding’ and accused an Air Vice Marshal of ‘sabotaging’ his career.

Evidence given by two Air Marshals and other senior RAF figures was described by the panel as ‘rehearsed, hollow and unconvincing’.

The hearing was told Wd Cdr Steele – a qualified solicitor – joined the Legal Branch of the RAF in 2003.

In July 2016 he was involved in an incident which had led to a criminal conviction for ‘threatening and abusive behaviour’, the hearing was told.

As a result, in July 2018 the RAF decided to issue him with a formal warning for three months ‘to allow him to reflect on his behaviour…and move forward’.

The following month Wg Cdr Steele protested about a proposed posting to RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire as he would be working underneath an officer he believed had been promoted over his head.

The tribunal, held in Watford, heard that in September that year he made his first official complaint about his treatment.

‘[He] complained of bullying, harassment, intimidation and victimisation, which he said emanated from the senior leadership of the Legal Branch,’ the hearing was told.

‘He complained of a toxic environment, colleagues leaving and a climate of fear.

‘[He] referred to two examples of intimidation and said evidence had recently been disclosed [which] showed his religious observance, accent and visible physical characteristics had been subject of comment in a derogatory document received by the Legal Branch in 2015 and stored to date.

‘[He] complained he had been…unfairly denied promotion to Group Captain in 2017 and 2018. [He] said that he was warned by three senior officers not to challenge this treatment because that would cause alienation.’

The tribunal heard that in October 2018 he started work at RAF Coningsby and two months later made a complaint of ‘extreme bullying’ after his senior officer failed to formally bring his warning to an end.

‘He has vociferously objected to the issuance of a [formal warning] and the impact he believes it has had on his career prospects…’ another senior officer said.

‘[This] has given rise to allegations of bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination, as he perceives this action [the formal warning] has been taken against him because he is Scottish, male and a Christian, rather than because he is a commissioned officer and a lawyer with a criminal conviction.’

The tribunal was told that, unbeknownst to Wg Cdr Steele, in 2019 his complaints had led senior RAF personnel to conclude he did not want to work with fellow legal officers and may have to be dismissed.

‘[He] was largely oblivious to the disruption his complaints had caused,’ the panel found. ‘He was preoccupied with a sense of injustice, and he needed to bring this to his employer’s attention.

‘He had a strong belief in procedures and (in hindsight) naively believed that in pursuing his [complaints] the senior echelons of the RAF would sort this out.

‘We do not find him malicious in this approach, just lacking a degree of insight as to the consequences on others of his [complaints].

‘That consequence was that he annoyed a number of his colleagues and he annoyed, in particular, very senior colleagues in the Legal Branch and elsewhere who dealt with the claims and did not expect to be challenged and to justify their conduct.’

Director of Legal Services, Air Vice Marshal Tamara Jennings OBE had effectively ‘sabotaged’ Wg Cdr Steele’s career by concluding in July 2019 that he could not serve in the Legal Branch any more due to a breakdown in relations with other officers, the tribunal concluded.

In October 2019, a report was compiled that, according to the panel, was designed to justify his sacking on the basis that his complaints had ‘gone too far in challenging senior officers and colleagues’.

The next month Wg Cdr Steele applied to have his commission terminated.

However, senior members of the RAF didn’t want to let him resign but wanted to dismiss him instead.

Air Marshal Julian Young said he and Air Marshal Gerry Mayhew – who were on the Air Force Board that sacked him in December 2019 – said they wanted to ‘demonstrate that behaviour such as his was unacceptable’.

‘He had caused a lot of upheaval within the Service and a significant morale issue within one of the branches, and he was in our view beyond the point of rehabilitation,’ one said. ‘We do not expect senior officers in the RAF to behave in this way and it was unacceptable.’

Upholding Wg Cdr Steele’s claim that his sacking had been an act of deliberate victimisation, Employment Judge Gary Tobin said: ‘[He] was perceived as disruptive, and these senior officers effectively saw that it was one person at odds with 42 mainly senior officers.

‘They believed that the interest of these 42 mainly senior officers ought to prevail… irrespective of the harsh consequences on [him] of losing his job, his livelihood and his reputation.’

Wg Cdr Steele’s compensation will be decided at a later date.

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