Mr M Mubin v Respondent — 2020

Mr Mubin had been employed by Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc for about four weeks in July 2017. He later applied on 15 July 2020 for a Technical Systems Manager post and was unsuccessful on 27 July 2020. He applied to amend the claim so that it could cover events in July 2017, but the tribunal refused amendment because it would materially widen the case to events said to have occurred three years earlier, those matters were outside the primary limitation period, and the respondent would suffer prejudice.

The tribunal struck out the direct discrimination claims based on disability and religion or belief. It accepted the respondent's evidence that the 2020 application form did not ask for, and did not contain, information about race, disability, or religion or belief, so there was no factual basis for saying the relevant decision maker took those characteristics into account. The tribunal also noted that the claimant had contemporaneous notes from 2017 about unfair treatment, but he did not then attribute the treatment to any protected characteristic, and he accepted at the hearing that he knew of the time limit for bringing a discrimination claim shortly after leaving in July 2017.

The remaining race discrimination claim, based on the claimant's description of himself as Pakistani Asian, was not finally determined. The tribunal accepted that his name could potentially indicate race, but not inevitably so, and held that the claim had little prospect of success because he was not shortlisted or interviewed, he could not identify the qualifications of the successful candidate or other applicants, and the respondent was entitled to take his earlier employment record into account when assessing a former employee's application. It therefore ordered a deposit of £750, after finding on the claimant's evidence that he had some financial means through family support and his self-employed business.