Miss H Paul v Department for Work and Pensions — 2022

This was a preliminary hearing about the claimant's application to amend her claims, not a final merits decision. The tribunal noted that a previous preliminary hearing had identified only a failure to make reasonable adjustments claim concerning removal of a security card from a computer when away from the workstation and the arrangement of the claimant's workstation. The tribunal treated matters outside that order as amendment applications unless they were properly characterised as relabelling of facts already pleaded.

The tribunal allowed the claimant to amend the ET1 to record disability, there being no objection. It also allowed the section 15 Equality Act 2010 discrimination arising from disability claim, finding that the relevant factual basis was already in the ET1 and that the claim was a relabelling exercise. It allowed reasonable adjustment amendments relating to a working laptop and adequately sized home-working desk/equipment, finding those matters were within the ET1 and central to the claimant's dismissal-related case.

The tribunal refused permission for reasonable adjustment amendments about part-time working, a floor move, and a sit/stand desk. It considered those matters to have been brought too late, found no adequate basis had been advanced for extending time, and considered that they were not central to the core case. It also refused permission to add automatic unfair dismissal under section 103A ERA and victimisation claims, finding they were new claims raising different factual and legal issues, brought out of time, and that the claimant had not shown a sufficient basis for extending time or permitting the amendments.