Ms R. Khan v Microsoft Limited — 2020

At the preliminary hearing on 21 January 2020, Employment Judge Goodman considered the respondent's application that claim 2203173/2019 should be rejected because the early conciliation certificate number on the form was wrong, and the claimant's application to allow the resubmitted claim, 3326045/2019, to proceed out of time. The judge recorded that the underlying matter was a harassment claim under section 26 of the Equality Act 2010 arising after the claimant's dismissal on 3 June 2019, and noted that she had not been employed long enough to bring an unfair dismissal claim.

The tribunal held that the first claim was a nullity. Applying rules 10 and 12 of the Employment Tribunal Rules 2013, and relying on Sterling v United Learning Trust and E.On Solutions Ltd v Caspall, the judge said the number on the claim form had to be accurate and that a wrong number was treated as no number at all. The fact that the correct certificate had later been supplied to the tribunal file did not avoid the mandatory rejection point.

On the resubmitted claim, the tribunal applied the just and equitable test in section 123 of the Equality Act 2010 and the factors in British Coal Corporation v Keeble. The judge found the error was a small transposition mistake, that the claimant acted promptly once it was identified, that the delay did not affect the cogency of the evidence, and that the case could still be heard on the original timetable. Time was therefore extended for claim 3326045/2019 to be presented out of time.