Miss K Kreciszewska v Granville Care Home Ltd — 2024

The Claimant brought complaints of disability discrimination, holiday pay and (by amendment) constructive unfair dismissal against Granville Care Home Ltd. A preliminary issue arose as to which of two ACAS early conciliation certificates governed time limits; the Tribunal concluded that the first certificate (Day A 3 August 2021, Day B 4 August 2021) was the operative one under section 18A of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996, following Commissioners for HMRC v Serra Garau, Treska and Romero. This impacted on time limits for the substantive complaints.

On the disability discrimination claims, the Tribunal found that the matters complained of either did not constitute unfavourable treatment or did not arise from the Claimant's disability, noting that shielding had ended by the relevant dates and that there was no evidence the Claimant was unable to attend work at the material times. On reasonable adjustments, the Tribunal accepted the PCP and that it placed the Claimant at a disadvantage, but found that the proposed adjustments (working from home on administrative work, or being given different back-office duties) were not reasonable: administrative work required on-site access to patient records and care plans, the existing administrator could not reasonably be displaced during the pandemic, and on the balance of probabilities the Claimant would not have attended the Home in any event.

The constructive unfair dismissal claim was held to be out of time, and in any event no fundamental breach of contract was established, the underlying discrimination allegations having failed. The Respondent admitted the holiday pay claim: 30.8 hours at £9 per hour, totalling £277.20 gross (subject to tax and NI), was ordered to be paid.