Mr I Yould v GXO Logistics UK Ltd Heard on 2 November 2021 (by telephone) — 2021

Mr Yould worked as a warehouse operative at the respondent's Barnsley site, with duties that could require attendance at the Sharps and Hunt warehouses nearby. The hearing concerned the respondent's applications to strike out the current claims as an abuse of process. The respondent argued that the claimant had litigated about similar matters in an earlier claim presented on 31 January 2020, which he later withdrew on 29 July 2020 after a COT3 settlement. The tribunal noted that the earlier complaints were said to include harassment, failure to make reasonable adjustments, victimisation and discrimination arising from disability.

The tribunal held that the present complaints related to events that post-dated the earlier claim by more than 14 months. Because the earlier proceedings had been withdrawn, there had been no findings of fact about the later alleged breaches. The tribunal concluded that issue estoppel and the rule in Henderson v Henderson did not arise, because the claimant was not seeking to reopen matters that had been decided, or that could and should have been decided, in the earlier proceedings.

The tribunal also rejected the respondent's argument based on the COT3. It found that the wording relied on, including the claimant's agreement to retract subsisting grievances and refrain from further complaints regarding the circumstances which gave rise to the earlier proceedings, could not be read as excluding future disability discrimination claims about events that had not yet occurred. Applying Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital Trust v Howard, the tribunal held that the language was not sufficiently clear and unambiguous to bar those later claims. The applications to strike out the disability discrimination, harassment and victimisation claims were dismissed, and no monetary award was made.