Miss G Mitchell v Butterfly Leisure Ltd — 2020

At a telephone preliminary hearing on 1 July 2020, Employment Judge Rostant considered whether Miss G Mitchell's disability discrimination complaint against Butterfly Leisure Ltd should be struck out or made subject to a deposit order. The respondent did not attend the hearing. The judge had previously heard the matter on 20 April 2020, and at the July hearing he spoke further with the claimant about the basis of her complaint.

The claimant said she has bipolar disorder, that the respondent knew of it, and that she used a detailed coping structure because of her condition. She said that after some money went missing at work, Mr Kaye repeatedly suggested that she had mislaid it and later said he had given her four days to find it, which she said amounted to an implied accusation of theft linked to her disability.

The tribunal treated the claim as one of direct disability discrimination or, alternatively, a claim under section 15 of the Equality Act 2010. Judge Rostant said that, on the material before him, he could not conclude that the claim had no reasonable prospect of success or little reasonable prospect of success. He therefore did not strike out the claim and made no deposit order.