Ms I v C Jianu and 2 others — 2018

The claimant was employed by the respondents as a resident housekeeper/nanny from 27 February 2017 until 1 July 2018, when her employment ended on a redundancy basis. The tribunal accepted the respondents' explanation that the dismissal followed Ms Junco's serious medical condition and the family's decision to stop employing a live-in housekeeper/nanny. It found that the claimant was not replaced.

On the disability discrimination complaint, the tribunal found that the claimant's chest injury, said to have followed a fall in early April 2018, had lasted only a few weeks by the date of dismissal and was not likely to last for 12 months or more. It also found that the respondents did not believe she had a serious or long-lasting condition. For those reasons, the claimant was not disabled within the Equality Act definition and was not perceived to be disabled. In any event, the injury played no part in the decision to dismiss.

The weekly rest break complaint under reg 11 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 failed because the tribunal found that the claimant worked only one of the 19 Sundays she identified, and that Sunday was worked by agreement and was paid. She was not asked or expected to work the other 18 Sundays, so there was no infringement of the weekly rest entitlement and no basis for an unpaid wages claim arising from Sunday working.

The daily rest break complaint under reg 12 also failed. The tribunal found that the claimant's contract expressly provided for an unpaid one-hour rest break on weekdays, that she was not supervised in her duties, and that she was free to decide when to take the break. It found she was never told not to take it and was not given so much work that she could not complete the day if she took the break. All claims were dismissed and no remedy was awarded.