Mr D Leach (Counsel) For the v Respondent — 2021

This was a preliminary hearing on the claimant's application to amend the claim. The claimant had resigned on 21 December 2020, presented an unfair constructive dismissal claim on 22 December 2020, and later instructed solicitors on 2 August 2021. He sought to add disability discrimination complaints based on a back injury said to prevent manual work, including complaints about being required to do handyman work and remarks attributed to Kevin. The parties accepted that the disability discrimination complaints were out of time and asked the tribunal to decide whether time should be extended on the just and equitable basis.

The tribunal accepted the claimant's evidence that he did not understand he had disability discrimination complaints until advised by his solicitors and that the amendment was made promptly after that advice. Applying the Selkent balancing exercise and the Equality Act time-limit principles cited in the decision, the tribunal held that the proposed amendment was a new cause of action but was not obviously hopeless, that the respondent had not shown positive evidential prejudice, and that the delay was mitigated by the fact that the final hearing had already been postponed for this application. It therefore granted leave to amend and extended time for the disability discrimination complaints. No monetary remedy was awarded in this decision, and the merits of the proposed claims were left for the final hearing.