Case 1404140/2022 · Employment Tribunal

Claimant v Respondent — 2025

Case reference: 1404140/2022
Decision date: 29 January 2025
Jurisdiction: England & Wales
Judge: Employment Judge Bowen Melanie
Venue: Southampton
Panel members: Melanie Metcalf, Jean Ratnayake-Kingsley

Indexed: 23 May 2026

Parties

1 named

Claimant

Respondent

Key findings

Tribunal's reasoning

The tribunal upheld A's direct sex discrimination claim under section 13 Equality Act 2010. It found that B failed to protect A from K despite being asked to do so from 28 September 2022 until A's dismissal. The alternative harassment claim based on the same failure-to-protect allegation was dismissed pursuant to section 212(5) Equality Act 2010.

The tribunal also upheld complaints of sexual harassment under section 26(3) Equality Act 2010 and harassment related to sex under section 26(2) Equality Act 2010 concerning K smacking A's bottom with his hand and a wooden spoon on 19 July 2022, 31 August 2022, and 23 September 2022. It found there was conduct extending over a period and that all of the complaints were within time under section 123 Equality Act 2010.

A separate allegation that in June and July 2022, on multiple occasions, K asked A to go out with him and would provide face ID for A was dismissed as not well founded. Another allegation, that on 9 September 2022 K smacked A's bottom with a wooden spoon, was dismissed upon withdrawal. The extracted judgment records liability only and contains no monetary award.

Claims and outcomes

5 findings recorded

This case has mixed outcomes under at least one legal claim type. A tribunal can uphold some allegations and dismiss others under the same legal head, so rows below may represent separate issues or allegation groups from the judgment.

Claim type	Issue or finding	Outcome	Protected characteristic	Award
Sex discrimination	Direct sex discrimination under section 13 Equality Act 2010, based on failure to protect A from K despite being asked to do so from 28 September 2022 until A's dismissal.	Upheld	Sex	—
Harassment	Alternative claim of harassment related to sex under section 26(2) Equality Act 2010, based on the same failure-to-protect allegation as the direct discrimination claim, was dismissed pursuant to section 212(5) Equality Act 2010.	Dismissed	Sex	—
Harassment	Claims of sexual harassment under section 26(3) Equality Act 2010 and harassment related to sex under section 26(2) Equality Act 2010 were well-founded in relation to K smacking A's bottom with his hand and a wooden spoon on 19 July 2022, 31 August 2022, and 23 September 2022.	Upheld	Sex	—
Harassment	Claims of harassment related to sex and sexual harassment were not well-founded in relation to the allegation that, in June and July 2022 on multiple occasions, K asked A to go out with him and would provide face ID for A.	Dismissed	Sex	—
Harassment	Claims of harassment related to sex and sexual harassment concerning the allegation that on 9 September 2022 K smacked A's bottom with a wooden spoon were dismissed upon withdrawal.

Legal tests applied

5 references

Official outcome judgment PDF

Gov.uk primary record

The official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.

Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

How we got this data

Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.

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