Ms. L. Anderson v XML International Ltd — 2024

Ms L. Anderson worked for XML International Ltd from 3 January 2022 to 28 February 2023. At a case management hearing she withdrew the unfair dismissal and redundancy payment claims because she lacked qualifying service. The tribunal found the written notice term remained 30 days and that the share option clause was only an intention to set up an ESOP later, not a present promise of 13,000 options.

On the harassment allegations, the tribunal found the March 2022 remark about Jewish applicants was innocuous, did not accept that Nazi jokes or exclusive Hebrew-speaking were proved, and found the Munich remark was a warning about speaking about Munich in front of Jewish or Israeli colleagues rather than an attempt to humiliate the claimant. It also found the black-applicant remark was at most a comment about diversity. The pussy incident was accepted as having occurred, but it was out of time and, together with the other out-of-time allegations, would not have been allowed to proceed.

On direct discrimination, the tribunal held that none of the alleged conduct amounted to less favourable treatment because of race, religion or sex, and it did not infer discriminatory dismissal. The respondent said the claimant was not a good fit for a start-up environment, had performance concerns and friction with colleagues, and the tribunal accepted that explanation. It noted that the dismissal process was procedurally unfair, but found the dismissal was not materially influenced by protected characteristics. No monetary award was made.