Mr S. N. Jamie v British Broadcasting Corporation — 2019

The preliminary hearing considered whether the claimant's equal pay claim was presented in time. The claimant had worked for the BBC until March 2019 and claimed equal pay with another employee. He said he learned in autumn 2018 by hearsay that the comparator was paid more, raised a grievance, received a grievance outcome in May 2019, appealed, and received the appeal outcome on 31 October 2019. He contacted ACAS on 2 December 2019 and presented the tribunal claim on 9 February 2020.

The tribunal held that the case was a standard case under the equal pay time-limit provisions, so proceedings had to be started within six months of termination of employment. The tribunal found that the only potentially relevant exception was a concealment case, but the claimant did not seriously assert that the BBC had deliberately concealed the information, and he had been sufficiently clear about the facts to lodge his grievance in November 2018.

The tribunal also stated that even if there had been deliberate concealment until after employment ended, the claimant knew the comparator was paid more when he received the May 2019 grievance outcome, and he still did not contact ACAS until after six months from that date. The tribunal concluded that it had no discretion to extend time in equal pay cases and dismissed the claim for want of jurisdiction.