Case 1603466/2025 · Employment Tribunal
IN PERSON FOR THE v Respondent — 2025
- Case reference
- 1603466/2025
- Decision date
- 18 November 2025
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
Parties
1 namedClaimant
IN PERSON FOR THE
Respondent
- —
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningAt a remote hearing in Swansea on 13 and 14 October 2025 before Employment Judge S Povey, with the claimant appearing in person and the respondent represented by Ms Minto of counsel, the tribunal considered a series of direct discrimination complaints brought by Mr Stefan Halikowski Smith against Swansea University. The complaints concerned nationality/ethnic origin and religion, including an allegation that in 2020 the respondent refused to pay publication expenses of £767.12, that in August 2021 books on the Catholic Counter-Reformation were removed from the library, that sabbaticals were denied in 2016 and 2018, that an email of 25 January 2023 excluded the claimant from departmental meetings, and that he was disciplined leading to a final written warning in February 2023 when Christoph Laucht was not disciplined.
Claims and outcomes
3 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race discrimination | Direct discrimination by reason of nationality/ethnic origin. The tribunal struck out the complaints listed at paragraphs 1.1 to 1.5, finding no reasonable prospects of showing they were presented in time or within such period as was just and equitable. It also struck out the alternative race complaint at paragraph 3.1 concerning the February 2023 disciplinary warning, and paragraph 3.2 concerning the July 2024 use of the word "foreign" in "Modern Foreign Languages" was struck out for no reasonable prospects of success. | Struck out | Race | — |
| Religion or belief discrimination | Direct discrimination by reason of religion. The tribunal struck out the complaints listed at paragraphs 1.1 to 1.5, finding no reasonable prospects of showing they were presented in time or within such period as was just and equitable. It also struck out the alternative religion complaint at paragraph 3.1 concerning the February 2023 disciplinary warning, and paragraph 3.2 concerning the July 2024 use of the word "foreign" in "Modern Foreign Languages" was struck out for no reasonable prospects of success. | Struck out | Religion or belief | — |
| Sex discrimination | The complaint of direct discrimination by reason of sex was struck out because the tribunal found no reasonable prospects of showing it was presented in time or within such period as was just and equitable. The extracted text does not identify a separate factual allegation for this complaint. | Struck out | Sex | — |
Legal tests applied
2 references- no reasonable prospects of success
- just and equitable
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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