Ms Dilara Begum v Selfridges Retail Limited — 2023

This was a preliminary hearing before Employment Judge R S Drake on 17 November 2023. The tribunal considered the claimant's application to amend her ET1 by relying on particulars filed after the original claim. It refused leave to amend, holding that the later particulars went beyond the ET1 and amounted to new claims rather than clarification of the existing pleading.

The ET1 was taken to say that the claimant had been "dismissed because of my disability". The tribunal read that as a disability discrimination allegation and noted that the later particulars did not clearly plead the required causal link between disability and dismissal. It also noted the respondent's case that the dismissal was for misconduct while the claimant was subject to a live warning. On that basis, the tribunal held that the pleaded claim had no reasonable prospect of success and that the claimant had not fully complied with the tribunal's earlier directions.

Applying Rule 37(1)(a) and (c), and referring to Chandhok v Tirkey, Swain v Hillman, A v B, Anyanwu, Community Law Clinic Solicitors v Methuen, and Ezsias v North Glamorgan NHS Trust, the tribunal concluded that the case was doomed to fail as pleaded. It struck out the unamended ET1 and dismissed the alleged unlawful discrimination claims. No remedy was awarded.