Mr Akmal v Royal Mail Group Limited — 2019

The claimant, who is of Pakistani origin, brought race discrimination and harassment complaints arising from allegations made against him in July 2018, his suspension and investigation, a later grievance, and a review carried out by Mr Edgley. The tribunal accepted that the 2018 investigation was a continuing act ending on 7 December 2018, but found the claim was presented more than a year later and declined to extend time because the claimant gave no sufficient explanation for the delay and had access to trade union support.

The tribunal treated the January 2019 grievance and Mr Edgley's later review as sufficiently connected to amount to a continuing act and therefore in time. It then considered whether those in-time matters had any reasonable prospect of success, noting that discrimination claims should only be struck out in plain and obvious cases.

The tribunal found there was little factual dispute and accepted Mr Edgley's evidence that race played no part in his investigation. It noted that the claimant had not raised race during the 2018 investigation or the 2019 grievance process and had accepted that he only considered race after speaking to ACAS. Taking the claimant's case at its highest, the tribunal concluded that the in-time race allegations had no reasonable prospects of success and struck out the claim. The indirect discrimination claim was withdrawn at the hearing.