Members: Graham Piggott Walter Stewart Mrs Doreen Mafara v - Solicitor Money Matters Money Advice Centre — 2017

The tribunal's original judgment held that the harassment complaint was outwith jurisdiction because the acts complained of were time-barred under section 123 of the Equality Act 2010 and it was not just and equitable to let that head of complaint proceed. It also upheld the race discrimination complaint, but only as direct discrimination under section 13 of the Equality Act 2010, based on the pay difference between the claimant and her comparator, Mrs Marie Duncan.

A separate remedy judgment on 6 February 2017 awarded £1,496.32 by consent for the race discrimination claim, reflecting the agreed amount of the pay difference. The tribunal's original unfair dismissal judgment under section 94 ERA 1996 also succeeded for the claimant, with no ACAS uplift, and originally made an unfair dismissal award of £7,237.93 with a prescribed element of £7,094.36 for the period 11 April 2014 to 12 January 2015.

On reconsideration, the tribunal rejected the respondents' challenges on time bar, comparator, substitution and Polkey points, but accepted that it had conflated matters on contributory fault. It varied the unfair dismissal judgment to find that the claimant did cause or contribute to her dismissal, reduced the basic and compensatory awards by 75% under sections 122(2) and 123(6) ERA 1996, kept the 10% reduction for failure to appeal internally under section 207A TULRCA 1992, and recalculated the unfair dismissal award to £1,809.48. Across the upheld claims, the monetary awards recorded in the judgment totalled £3,305.80, and the tribunal made no order requiring reimbursement of the £350 reconsideration fee, while noting HMCTS should refund the fee in light of UNISON.