Miss L Joynat v The English School for Girls PRELIMINARY HEARING — 2022

Miss L Joynat brought claims of discrimination on the grounds of sex, race and religion or belief, together with a claim described in the judgment as a claim for 'other payments'. The only issue at the preliminary hearing was territorial jurisdiction under Rule 8(2) of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013. The Claimant did not attend the hearing, and the Tribunal proceeded in her absence.

On the limited material before it, the Tribunal found that the Claimant had worked as a supply physics teacher in Kuwait for just over a year and a half, under a local employment contract, and that the Respondent school was based in Kuwait. It recorded no evidence that the Respondent resided or carried on business in England and Wales, that any of the alleged acts took place there, or that the contract involved work performed partly in England and Wales. The Claimant had said at an earlier case management hearing that she had been recruited in the UK, that her line manager lived in the UK, and that she believed she had suffered post-termination discrimination through unfavourable references, but the Tribunal found no evidence of a sufficient jurisdictional link.

Applying the authorities it cited, including Lawson v Serco Limited, Duncombe v SoS for Children, Schools and Families, and Ravat v Halliburton Manufacturing and Services Ltd, the Tribunal held that the employment did not have even a partial connection with England and Wales. It said that being British or being recruited in Britain was not enough, and that there was no 'something more' to bring the case within British employment law. The sex, race and religion or belief discrimination claims, and the claim for 'other payments', were therefore dismissed for want of territorial jurisdiction.