Miss M Craig v Royal Mail Group Limited — 2025

At a preliminary hearing on 17 July 2025 before Employment Judge JM Wade sitting at Leeds by CVP, the tribunal considered the claimant's complaint that in November/December 2023 she was removed from working in the priority locker by Mr West after a mis-sorting mistake costing the business about £1,000, and her later discovery in February 2025 that a colleague who made a similar mistake costing £250 had not been treated in the same way. The pleaded complaint relied on section 14 of the Equality Act 2010, a provision that is not yet in force, and the tribunal held that on that basis the allegation had no reasonable prospect of success.

The claimant sought to recast the complaint, via her agenda for the hearing, as allegations under sections 13, 19 and 20 of the Equality Act 2010 (direct discrimination, indirect discrimination and failure to make reasonable adjustments) on grounds of race and disability. The tribunal treated this as an application to amend and refused it. The judge held that the section 19 and 20 allegations could not be understood and so had no prospects, and that the section 13 relabelling could not succeed because the pleaded facts were not facts from which a tribunal could conclude a contravention, particularly given the clear non-discriminatory reason of a costly mistake and the absence of any evidential basis for an inference of less favourable treatment because of race or disability.

The tribunal also weighed the balance of prejudice and time-limit considerations, noting that the claimant had been advised by her union in knowledge of the time-limit issue but the claim was not presented until May 2025. The application to amend was refused, and the tribunal ordered that the remaining claim will be struck out unless by 15 August 2025 the claimant sets out written representations as to why it should not be struck out, or requests a hearing.