In person v Ms D Maguire (Employee Relations Consultant) This has been a remote hearing due to Covid 19. — 2021

The tribunal considered a preliminary issue only: whether Mr Ali's religion and belief discrimination complaints were in time under section 123 of the Equality Act 2010. The claimant said that between November 2015 and 16 January 2016 three named colleagues made comments such as “don’t come to Europe as Muslim, come as Hindo [sic] or sikh or whatever”, which the judge described as arguable complaints of harassment related to religion.

The judge found that the last arguable act was 16 January 2016. On that basis, and allowing for the ACAS early conciliation extension, a claim should have been presented by about 15 April 2016. The tribunal noted that the claimant had consulted solicitors and contacted ACAS in 2016, but the matter did not proceed, and the claimant later said he had understood that the case was not going ahead.

The claim was presented on 15 February 2021. The tribunal accepted that there was no pleaded complaint about dismissal, and it rejected the suggestion that the passage of time should be excused. It considered the length of the delay, the claimant's explanation, the information normally given with ACAS certificates about strict time limits, and the likely prejudice to the respondent from trying allegations about remarks said to have been made around six years earlier.

Balancing all the circumstances, the tribunal held that it was not just and equitable to extend time from early 2016 to 15 February 2021. The religion and belief discrimination claims were therefore dismissed without any substantive determination of the underlying allegations or any remedy award.