EAT Redundancy : Fairness – DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION – Reasonable adjustments
The Claimant (C) was one of several carpenters made redundant by the Employer (E). He brought claims of unfair dismissal (UD), direct disability discrimination (DD) and failure to make reasonable adjustments (RA). C attended the hearing with bundle of undisclosed documents seeking to raise all aspects of UD claim. E opposed late admission of the documents and claimed that the UD issues had been narrowed by concession at an earlier CMD. If the hearing was to proceed, E said it should be limited only to issue of whether C had a disability.
Employment Tribunal (ET) admitted the late documents, held that all issues of UD were ‘live’, and declined to restrict scope of hearing to disability alone. ET upheld the UD claim, dismissed the DD claim and allowed the RA claim.
On E’s appeal it was contended: (1) the hearing should have been restricted to the disability issue or wholly postponed; and/or (2) the ET had not explained why the RA claims were ‘in time’ for the purposes of the statutory provisions, nor applied the Matuszowicz decision.
HELD:
(1) Ground 1 dismissed. It was impossible to say that the decision to proceed had been a perverse exercise of case management powers.
(2) Ground 2 allowed. The ET had not referred to the relevant statutory provision nor the Matuszowicz. The RA claim would go back to them to consider afresh whether it had been brought in time.
Luba QC Rec
[2013] UKEAT 0101 – 13 – 1212
Bailii
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 04 December 2021; Ref: scu.526538