Miss O Nketiah v National Highways Limited — 2022

The Tribunal considered whether the claimant's existing complaints of direct pregnancy discrimination, direct race discrimination and harassment on grounds of race had been presented within such further period as was just and equitable. The claim was presented on 8 July 2021 after ACAS early conciliation on 24 June 2021. The Tribunal found that the last acts identified from the original claim were on either 25 February 2020 or 10 March 2020, so the claim was substantially outside the primary time limit.

The Tribunal accepted that the claimant pursued an internal grievance and appeal, that she had pregnancy-related ill health in September 2020, and that she had received advice from her trade union and information from ACAS, including information about Tribunal time limits. It found it was just and equitable to extend time to 31 December 2020, but not to the date when the claim was presented, because the claimant had not provided an adequate explanation for the period from 1 January 2021 to 9 May 2021 and because the respondent would be prejudiced in defending complaints dating back nearly two years.

The claimant also applied to amend her claim to add a complaint that her team failed to send a congratulations card after the birth of her daughter on 20 September 2020, said to be race and/or pregnancy discrimination. The Tribunal rejected that amendment, finding it was a new factual complaint, was raised around eight months after the assumed expiry of the primary time limit, and that it would not be just and equitable to extend time to 15 September 2021.