DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION, PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE
The employment tribunal found that the claimant had been subject to harassment by ‘being compelled to complete an ill-health retirement assessment application (after expressing the fact he did not want medical retirement)’. The employment tribunal erred in law in failing to make specific findings about the conduct on the part of the respondent that constituted the harassment and, if it extended beyond 20 February 2013 (the date on which the claimant submitted an application for ill health retirement) to no later than September 2020 (the date by which it was accepted any conduct was no longer unwanted) what specific conduct on the part of the respondent occurred and when the period over which it extended ended. The matter is remitted to the same employment tribunal if practicable. Having determined the date or period over which the harassment occurred, the employment tribunal should go on to determine whether it is just and equitable to apply a time limit in excess of three months. The employment tribunal also erred in law in holding that it was only appropriate to take into account the period by which the submission of the claim form exceeded the usual three month time limit in determining whether it was just and equitable to apply a longer time limit. It was also necessary to consider the effect that extending the time limit would have on the respondent’s ability to defend the claim, including the fact that it would result in the tribunal having to make determinations about matters that had occurred many years previous to the hearing, albeit not because of any fault of either party but because the claim had been stayed pending the resolution of a personal injury claim. The Tribunal should have regard to the decision of the Court of Appeal in Adedeji v University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation [2021] EWCA Civ 23 (determined after the original employment tribunal hearing of this matter).
Judges:
His Honour Judge James Tayler
Citations:
[2021] UKEAT 2020-000385
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 10 June 2022; Ref: scu.677781