Mr Christopher Adams v Royal Mail Group Limited — 2018

The Tribunal upheld two pay claims. The Respondent conceded that overtime pay remained due, and judgment was entered for unpaid overtime under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 in the sum of £1,821.04. It also accepted that 18.1 hours of holiday pay was outstanding on termination, and the Tribunal awarded £231.72. The Tribunal dismissed the sick pay claim, finding that the industrial injury sick pay exception did not apply because there was no evidence that the Department for Work and Pensions had accepted the absence as due to an industrial accident, and that the Claimant had received the sick pay to which he was entitled under the normal policy.

The automatically unfair dismissal claim failed. The Tribunal found that the only identified assertion of statutory rights was the Employment Tribunal claim presented on 18 May 2018, but the dismissal decision had already been made before the Respondent was notified of that claim. It therefore did not find that the dismissal was because the Claimant had asserted or brought proceedings to enforce a statutory right.

The direct race discrimination and race harassment claims were dismissed. Many allegations were out of time and the Tribunal declined to extend time, but it also considered the allegations substantively. It found no discriminatory conduct, no continuing act, and no facts from which it could infer that race was the reason for the treatment complained of or that the conduct was related to race for the purposes of harassment.

The victimisation claim also failed. The Tribunal accepted that some complaints made by the Claimant were protected acts and that the initial burden of proof was discharged in relation to dismissal. It accepted the Respondent's explanation, however, that the dismissal was for matters separable from the protected acts, including its conclusions about the complaints, the Claimant's conduct towards colleagues, communications with managers, and his failure to engage with the disciplinary process.