PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Amendment
RACE DISCRIMINATION AND VICTIMISATION – Time Points
The Claimant was placed by the First Respondent (an agency) on a short-time assignment with the Second Respondent. She began work on 9 October 2017. On 9 November 2017 the Second Respondent terminated the assignment. It was agreed that the Claimant would work out a week’s notice. However, on 10 November 2017 the Second Respondent required her to leave immediately. On 7 April 2018 the Claimant presented a claim against the Second Respondent (the first claim), including complaints of direct race discrimination and victimisation, relating to the events of 9 and 10 November 2017, and the handling of a subsequent grievance by it.
On 4 October 2018 the Claimant presented a claim seeking to pursue complaints against the First Respondent under the Equality Act 2010 (the second claim). She also applied to add those complaints against the First Respondent to the first claim. She relied on documents contained in the hard copy disclosure provided by the Second Respondent in relation to the first claim, in August 2018, relating to its communications with the First Respondent in connection with the termination of the assignment with it. The Employment Tribunal held that the second claim had been presented outside the primary time limit, decided that it was not just and equitable to extend time, and refused the application to amend the first claim.
Held: The Employment Tribunal had not erred in identifying that the complaints that the Claimant sought to advance against the First Respondent were not of alleged conduct extending over a period, and hence that they were presented outside of the primary time limit. The Tribunal also reached a proper decision not to extend time, which was not perverse. In particular it was entitled to take account of its finding that the Claimant had been informed about, and provided with, the documents now relied upon by her, during April and May 2018. It also properly exercised its discretion not to permit the proposed amendment of the first claim.
Citations:
[2021] UKEAT 0028 – 20 – 1404
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Employment, Discrimination
Updated: 07 December 2022; Ref: scu.661952
