In person, For the v Ms Reece, employment adviser . — 2021

The claimant was a van driver whose employment transferred to the respondent under TUPE on 3 July 2017. He resigned on 3 February 2019 after complaints about workload, breaks, grievance handling, a temporary cover-driver arrangement and an additional collection. Applying Western Excavating, Omilaju and Kaur, the tribunal found that the matters relied on did not amount to a repudiatory breach or a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence, so the constructive dismissal claim failed.

On the race discrimination claim, the tribunal applied the burden-of-proof approach in s.136 Equality Act 2010 and the guidance in Madarassy and Hewage. It found no facts from which it could conclude that the respondent treated the claimant less favourably because of race in relation to assistance with parcels or the comments made on 3 December 2018. The claimant's comparator evidence about other drivers was insufficient, and the tribunal noted there was no wider evidence of discriminatory practice.

On wages, the tribunal applied Bear Scotland to the limitation issue. It held that alleged deductions in November 2017, March 2018 and May 2018 were out of time because there was a gap of more than three months in the claimed series. The £15 deduction from December 2018 wages for an alleged November 2018 time failure was found to be an unauthorised deduction and succeeded. The tribunal also upheld breach of contract claims for the December 2017 and December 2018 bonus payments and for two extra days of annual leave carried over from the predecessor employer, but it did not quantify those sums at liability stage.

The statutory annual leave claim under the Working Time Regulations failed because it was out of time, while the rest-break claim failed because the tribunal found the respondent did permit rest breaks. The judgment therefore recorded liability only on the £15 unlawful deduction and on the contract claims, with no final total award set in the decision.