Ms T Beaton v The Secretary of State for Justice and 1 other — 2021

This was a reserved judgment following a preliminary hearing. The claimant had brought claims including automatic unfair dismissal for having made a protected disclosure, protected disclosure detriment, race discrimination and other payments. The tribunal recorded that the claimant was a worker engaged by the second respondent and placed with the first respondent, and not an employee of either respondent. The unfair dismissal claim had therefore been withdrawn and dismissed at an earlier stage.

At this hearing, the claimant withdrew her claims for direct race discrimination and other payments/unlawful deduction from wages, and those claims were dismissed upon withdrawal. The tribunal recorded that the claimant did not say she had been discriminated against because of her own race, but said she had been present when racially discriminatory comments were made about others and that she suffered harassment and victimisation after complaining. The cancelled-shifts issue was treated as potentially relevant to remedy if detriment or victimisation claims succeeded, rather than as an unlawful deductions claim.

The remaining claims were protected disclosure detriment, harassment related to race and victimisation. The tribunal accepted that the respondents had not yet been given adequate particulars despite earlier orders, but refused the respondents' applications for strike-out or, alternatively, a deposit order. The claimant was given one last opportunity to provide an intelligible schedule of the alleged detriments, harassment and victimisation, limited to matters already set out in her earlier narrative and without adding new allegations.