In person For v Ms Meenan - Counsel — 2019

The claimant was an agency electrician placed on the Crossrail project at Bond Street via SOS Ltd, with LMOB Electrical Ltd as the client and the respondents as the lead contractor. The tribunal found that her written contract was with SOS Ltd, that LMOB and SOS Ltd set the material terms of pay, hours, leave, sickness, training and termination, and that the respondents did not contribute to those terms. The claimant's reliance on the respondents' supplier code of conduct and site oversight did not make them parties to her engagement.

On that basis, the tribunal held that there was no express or implied contract with the respondents and that the claimant was not a worker in relation to them for the purposes of s.230 ERA 1996. It also held that the extended whistleblowing definition in s.43K ERA 1996 was not met because the respondents did not substantially determine the terms on which she was engaged. The whistleblowing claims were therefore struck out.

The tribunal then considered the sex and race discrimination/harassment claims and held they were presented out of time under s.123 Equality Act 2010. It found that the claimant had trade union advice, had not given a reason for the delay, and that the balance of prejudice favoured refusing a just and equitable extension. Most of the allegations concerned LMOB personnel rather than the respondents, and the only allegation against a respondent's manager was Mr Owen's January 2019 criticism of the claimant's work rate.

The tribunal calculated that early conciliation for the discrimination claims should have been commenced by 5 December 2019 and refused to extend time. The extracted text contains an apparent date inconsistency between the dismissal date and the limitation calculation, but the outcome is clear: the discrimination claims did not proceed.