duncan_modEAT1410
EAT Sex Discrimination : Jurisdiction – Section 121 Equality Act 2010 – purposive construction required to achieve lawful balance between the statutory aim of enabling the Armed Forces to determine complaints internally prior to litigation and a complainant’s right of access to a Court/Tribunal within a reasonable time. That could be achieved by reading section 121(2) EqA as operating as a jurisdictional bar only where the right (under the Armed Forces Redress of Individual Grievances (Procedure and Time Limits) Regulations 2007) to make a referral to the Defence Council has arisen and has not been exercised.
The Employment Judge’s failure to give this provision such a purposive construction had led him to strike out the Claimant’s Employment Tribunal claim. It was now common ground that the Employment Judge’s ruling amounted to an error of law and the appeal should be allowed on this basis.
Costs – given the outcome of the appeal, the Employment Tribunal’s costs award against the Claimant cannot stand. By consent the Respondent is ordered to pay the Claimant’s costs of the appeal and those occasioned by its application to strike out the claim before the Employment Tribunal.
Eady QC HHJ
[2014] UKEAT 0191 – 14 – 0210
Bailii
Equality Act 2010 121, Armed Forces Redress of Individual Grievances (Procedure and Time Limits) Regulations 2007
England and Wales
Employment, Armed Forces, Costs, Discrimination
Updated: 10 November 2021; Ref: scu.537758
