Miss J Mitchell v British Broadcasting Corporation — 2024

This was a public preliminary hearing concerning time limits, amendment, and the respondent's application to strike out or for a deposit order. The claimant, who was employed by the respondent as an Accountant and was disabled by reason of cancer, complained about professional accounting qualifications being treated as essential for Accountant and Senior Accountant roles. She brought claims of indirect age discrimination, indirect disability discrimination, and failure to comply with the duty to make reasonable adjustments.

The tribunal rejected the respondent's argument that the claims were limited to a single decision on 11 September 2023 that the claimant was ineligible to apply for a Senior Accountant vacancy. Reading the claim as a whole, the tribunal found that the complaint was wider and concerned continuing access to promotional and transfer opportunities while the qualification criterion remained in place. It held that the complaints were prima facie continuing acts under s.123(3) Equality Act 2010 and were in time.

In the alternative, if the claims were out of time, the tribunal would have found it just and equitable to extend time. It took into account the claimant's prompt internal grievance, the timing and content of the grievance outcome, her contact with ACAS after that outcome, and the impact of her cancer treatment, fatigue, concentration difficulties and anxiety. The tribunal also refused to strike out the discrimination and reasonable adjustment claims, holding that the issues of disadvantage and whether disadvantages flowed from the PCP required evidence at a full hearing and were not clear cases with no reasonable prospects of success.