Mr J Ashford, lay representative For the First v Respondent — 2024

Mr Stephen Cheetham worked for Sheffield City Council from March 1999 until 31 March 2023, when his employment ended by voluntary redundancy, and the tribunal recorded that there was no complaint arising from the termination. He had been a Unite member from 1 September 2017 until 18 August 2022. Acas early conciliation ran from 22 June to 3 August 2023 and the claim form was issued on 21 August 2023, so acts before 23 March 2023 were potentially out of time. The preliminary hearing was therefore confined to whether the Equality Act complaints had been brought within the statutory time limit and, if not, whether it was just and equitable to extend time.

The tribunal identified allegations against the Council of failures to make reasonable adjustments between June and December 2022, direct discrimination and/or section 15 unfavourable treatment in June 2022, and victimisation on 13 June 2022. Against Unite, it identified alleged failures to make reasonable adjustments between June and August 2022 and direct discrimination and/or section 15 unfavourable treatment in June 2022. It found the last relevant acts were in August 2022 for Unite and December 2022 for the Council, so the delay beyond the primary three-month limit was about seven months for Unite and about three months for the Council.

The tribunal held that the reason advanced for the delay was ignorance of the time limits, but it was not satisfied that continuing ignorance had been proved on the evidence. It noted that Mr Ashford had acted for the claimant since at least March 2022, had contacted several organisations about the issues, and had referred by December 2022 to a possible discrimination case. The tribunal said there was no duty on the Council to advise on tribunal time limits, and no evidence that Unite had any such duty in the circumstances identified.

Applying section 123 Equality Act 2010 and the authorities it cited on just and equitable extension of time, the tribunal treated the length and reasons for delay as the most important factors and also considered prejudice and the cogency of evidence. It noted that the Council's witness Mr Freeth had not yet retired, whereas Unite's witness Mr Pearce had been on long-term absence. The tribunal refused to extend time and dismissed the discrimination and victimisation claims for lack of jurisdiction.