In Person For the v Respondent — 2024

Mr J Mullings brought direct age, race, sex and religion or belief discrimination claims arising from John Lewis PLC's recruitment for an Agile Coach role. At a public preliminary hearing on 11 July 2024, Employment Judge Brown considered strike out under rule 37, deposit orders under rule 39, and whether allegations 1.2.6 and 1.2.7 needed amendment. The tribunal held that no amendment was required for those allegations and that strike out was not appropriate.

For the strike-out application, the tribunal accepted that it could not fairly resolve the disputed facts without hearing evidence. It treated the allegations as covering Mr Walker's sharing of the claimant's name and interview with Mr Brown, access to LinkedIn information, the interview notes and scoring, a further look at the LinkedIn profile, and the later investigation and confidentiality handling of the complaint. It said the claimant's statistical points, including that existing agile coaches were white and often older, and that 17 of 117 applicants were interviewed, were capable of supporting an inference of discrimination at that stage; it also noted that one successful candidate was a black British man aged 33 and that the Respondent had no religion data for external applicants.

For deposit-order purposes, the tribunal separately found that each allegation had little reasonable prospect of success. It considered that the LinkedIn contact was explained by the claimant naming Mr Brown, that looking at the profile and discussing it did not plausibly show discrimination, that the interview notes broadly matched the claimant's own recording, and that the underscoring allegation was unlikely to succeed given the answers actually given. It also found little prospect of proving discriminatory complaint handling or confidentiality breaches, noted that the Respondent had engaged with the claimant and that there was no comparator evidence, and ordered deposits of £70 for each allegation, up to a total of £500, after considering the claimant's means and debts.