Mr H Allen v Kin and Carta Create Europe Limited — 2021

Mr H Allen joined Kin and Carta Create Europe Limited on 6 January 2020 and his probation was ended at a meeting on 17 February 2020. The tribunal held that his unfair dismissal claim could not proceed because he did not have the requisite qualifying service, and that claim was dismissed.

The discrimination complaint was treated as a race discrimination claim under the Equality Act 2010. The tribunal recorded that the ET1 raised complaints about lack of feedback before dismissal, being described as aggressive, the dismissal itself, and the failure to provide a positive reference or written reference at termination. The tribunal found that the last alleged act occurred on 17 February 2020, so the primary time limit expired on 16 May 2020.

The Claimant sought a just and equitable extension of time. The tribunal considered the delay, the effect of the first COVID-19 lockdown, his mental health evidence, his assertion that he was ignorant of UK employment law, his social media activity, and his work on the Anti-Racist Social Club. It accepted that he had some mental health difficulties and that lockdown made obtaining advice harder at first, but found that from June 2020 onwards he was able to research racism, create and post videos, and publicly describe his work on anti-racism.

Applying the just and equitable test under section 123 of the Equality Act 2010 and the authorities it cited, the tribunal found that the Claimant had known the facts giving rise to his complaint from February 2020, had not acted sooner, and had not given a sufficient explanation for the delay. It therefore refused to extend time and dismissed the discrimination claim as out of time and outside the tribunal's jurisdiction. The tribunal did not determine the underlying merits of the race discrimination allegations.