Miss T Burton v Royal Mail Group Limited AT A HEARING — 2020

The tribunal upheld both victimisation complaints in part. On the first claim number, it found that Miss Burton had done protected acts by raising the 2 April 2019 grievance, which included a complaint of indirect disability discrimination, and the bullying and harassment complaint alleging sex discrimination or harassment, together with the repetition of those allegations in the fact-find investigation and disciplinary hearing. It found detriments in the respondent's failure to pursue the grievance, its withdrawal of the bullying and harassment complaint from consideration, the absence of any formal opportunity for her to address that complaint, the lack of a proper decision or appeal, the failure to investigate potentially relevant CCTV evidence, the failure to record and investigate further allegations raised at the disciplinary meeting, and the decision to discipline her for social media comments made after the complaint was withdrawn.

On the second victimisation complaint, the tribunal found that Miss Burton had done protected acts by writing on 6 December 2019 about reasonable adjustments and by lodging a grievance on 8 January 2020 alleging disability discrimination, failure to make reasonable adjustments, victimisation and harassment. It held that the detriment was the move to the Delivery sector on 3 February 2020, which denied her the opportunity to be considered for, or phased back into, an alternative duty driving role on Collections. All other claims were dismissed.

The parties later agreed terms of settlement, and the claim for remedy was dismissed upon withdrawal. The listed remedy hearing was therefore vacated and the case management orders for that hearing were rescinded.