Miss P P Ponzi v 1 Lewis & Graves Partnership Ltd 2 Pendergate Ltd t/a Kindred 3 St Mary’s & St John’s CE School — 2021

The Claimant worked for R2 on two supervisor contracts for the Bennett House and Stamford Raffles sites, and later held a fixed-term sixth-form cleaning role with R3. In 2021 R1 won the whole-school cleaning contract and the parties accepted that the R2 cleaning workforce transferred to R1 on 1 August 2021. The Claimant said she had been dismissed by R3’s letter of 21 July 2021, but the Tribunal found that the only unfair dismissal complaint was against R3 and that she did not have two years’ service with R3; she had no unfair dismissal complaint against R1 or R2 because she was not alleging actual or constructive dismissal by either of them.

The race discrimination complaint concerned events on 19 and 20 July 2021 and 16 August 2021 involving staff said to be from R2 and R1. The Tribunal held that any liability of R2 for the 19 July 2021 incident transferred to R1 under regulation 4(2) TUPE, so R2 was no longer liable for that act. It then held that the discrimination complaints were out of time. The claim form was treated as presented on 15 March 2022, and the Tribunal concluded that the time limits under section 123 Equality Act 2010, read with section 140B, had expired and that it was not just and equitable to extend time.

On the TUPE consultation issue, the Tribunal accepted that the Claimant’s particulars complained that she had not been consulted about the transfer from R2 to R1 under regulation 13 TUPE. It held that the complaint was not presented in time and that it was not reasonably practicable for it to have been lodged earlier. The Tribunal removed R2 and R3 as respondents because no live claims remained against them. The separate pay allegations were not determined at this hearing: the Tribunal listed a further hearing for the Claimant’s unauthorised deductions from wages complaint against R1.