Ms W Omi v Ladbrokes Betting and Gaming Ltd — 2023

The claimant worked as a Customer Service Manager from 13 December 2016. After the Cornhill shop closed in October 2021, she accepted a 17-hour Watling Street contract because she was limiting the locations and shifts she could work for health reasons connected with Conns Syndrome and medical advice. She soon complained that there were overtime hours available and said she wanted to return to her original 30-hour contract.

The tribunal rejected discrimination at the point of the November 2021 step-down to 17 hours, but found that the position changed in 2022 when additional hours at Watling Street were made available and given to Tejas. It treated Tejas as an appropriate comparator, accepted that the claimant was not considered for the 30-hour opportunity, and held that the respondent's reliance on the claimant's supposed lack of flexibility was a proxy for disability. The direct disability discrimination claim therefore succeeded in part.

On time, the tribunal held that the relevant discriminatory act concluded on 12 June 2022, that the claimant only discovered the difference in treatment in late July 2022, that ACAS was contacted on 9 August 2022, and that the ET claim issued on 20 October 2022 was therefore in time. If that had been wrong, the tribunal said it would have extended time on a just and equitable basis.

For dismissal, the tribunal found that the claimant resigned on 28 November 2022 after repeated complaints about hours and discrimination had not been addressed. It held that the respondent's conduct amounted to repudiatory breaches of contract and a breach of trust and confidence, and that the resignation followed from those breaches. The tribunal therefore declared that the claimant was unfairly dismissed.