Mr G. Pennant (Race and Equality Council) v Respondent — 2024

The claimant brought race and disability discrimination claims, victimisation, and a constructive unfair dismissal claim arising from her employment with University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust and her resignation on 5 September 2022. The tribunal noted that ACAS early conciliation took place on 19 May 2023, the first claim form was presented on 22 May 2023, and a further claim form was presented on 29 August 2023. It also recorded that an earlier ET claim had settled under an ACAS COT3 agreement on 22 February 2018.

On the unfair dismissal claim, the tribunal held that the effective date of termination was 30 October 2022 and that the primary limitation period expired on 29 January 2023. The claim was nearly four months late. Applying s.111(2) ERA 1996, the tribunal found it was reasonably practicable for the claimant to present the claim in time because she had the intellectual resources to research the limit, had previously used the tribunal process, and had prepared a detailed resignation impact statement that could have been adapted into a claim form. Her sickness absence and medication did not alter that conclusion.

On the Equality Act claims, the tribunal held that the 2018 relocation and staffing allegations were separate from the later allegations about Ms Carr and were plainly out of time; it rejected the suggestion that they formed conduct extending over a period. For the later allegations, the tribunal accepted that, if they had been brought in time, the claims in connection with Ms Carr's conduct and the Trust's handling of it had prospects of success. It nevertheless concluded that the delay of about 17 months after the last alleged incident, together with fading recollection and missing or deleted emails, meant it was not just and equitable to extend time under s.123 Equality Act 2010. All claims were therefore dismissed.