Mrs C Seraphin (1) Miss S Dawes (2) v 29 Fleet Street Limited and 4 others — 2022

This was a reserved preliminary judgment after an open preliminary hearing on 8 November 2021. The Claimants were job-sharing dental nurses for the First Respondent until dismissal on 11 December 2020, apparently on redundancy grounds. The hearing dealt with the Fifth Respondent's withdrawal, the Fourth Respondent's strike-out application, and whether deposits should be ordered on the race discrimination complaints.

The Tribunal refused to strike out the unfair dismissal complaints. It held that evidence was needed on the reason for the dismissals and the process used, including whether there had been a TUPE transfer to the Fourth Respondent. The judgment states that if a pre-transfer dismissal was transfer-related and not for an ETO reason, the Fourth Respondent could be liable; if the reason was not transfer-related, or if there was an ETO reason but the dismissal was still unfair, liability would remain with the First Respondent.

On race discrimination, the Claimants said they were black Caribbean / Afro-Caribbean and that the Third Respondent did not want them to continue because of race. The Tribunal held that there was little prospect of success, noting comparator issues and the absence of facts from which an inference of race could readily be drawn, but it did not strike the complaints out. Instead, it ordered deposits of £50 for each of three pleaded allegations, so each Claimant would need to pay £150 to pursue those allegations; the Tribunal also recorded that neither Claimant pursued sex discrimination.