Mr D Collinson v Asda Stores Limited PRELIMINARY HEARING — 2021

Mr Collinson worked for Asda as an HGV driver and the respondent accepted that his back condition amounted to a disability. This was a preliminary hearing about limitation and amendment, not a merits hearing. The tribunal recorded that the claimant alleged failures to make reasonable adjustments, harassment, discrimination arising from disability, and unfair dismissal after his dismissal on 26 September 2019.

On the reasonable adjustments claim under s.20 EQA 2010, Employment Judge Midgley rejected the respondent's strike-out application. He held that the claim could be viewed, at this stage, as part of an extended course of conduct linked to the harassment allegations, so it should be treated as in time. If that analysis were wrong, he would have extended time on a just and equitable basis, relying on the claimant's prolonged ill health, the delay caused by attempts to resolve matters through grievance and appeals, and the existence of contemporaneous occupational health and grievance materials that limited prejudice to the respondent.

The tribunal also held that the unfair dismissal claim did not require amendment because the ET1, read as a whole, already identified the dismissal complaint. In the alternative, permission to amend would have been granted under the Selkent/Cocking amendment principles because the dismissal case arose from the same facts as the disability complaints and would not require a substantially different factual enquiry. The same approach was taken to the s.15 discrimination arising from disability claim, which the tribunal said was sufficiently identified in the ET1 and would in any event have been allowed by amendment. The respondent accepted that the harassment claim was within time and all claims were listed to proceed to a final hearing.