In person For the v Mr G Anderson barrister — 2023

Ms Ibnou Cheikh was employed by Old St Labs Limited from 30 September 2019 to 7 February 2021. The tribunal recorded that, during the Covid-19 disruption, the respondent delayed bonuses, later decided to give fully vested shares instead of cash, and the claimant received those shares in September 2020 without complaint at the time. She resigned in December 2020 and later raised a grievance about the share allocation and bonus conversion before presenting her tribunal claim on 9 March 2021.

The tribunal dismissed the claims against Mark Perera, Alexander Short and Adam Woolliscroft for want of jurisdiction because no early conciliation certificate had been obtained for those respondents. It then struck out the share options claims, both as unlawful deduction of wages and as breach of contract claims, holding that the scheme was separate from the employment contract, that no sum was payable on grant of an option, and that any entitlement related to share ownership rather than wages. The tribunal also rejected the contract claim because the scheme was discretionary and the claimant had agreed to its terms.

The bonus claims, pleaded both as unlawful deduction of wages and breach of contract, were also struck out. The tribunal found the bonus was discretionary, that the respondent had converted the bonus to shares, that the claimant accepted the shares and later said the amount had been clarified, and that the claim was out of time in any event. It also noted that the claimant had no contractual entitlement to a bonus once the board had exercised its discretion.

On sex discrimination, the tribunal refused most of the proposed amendment and struck out the ET1 allegations as insubstantial, largely out of time, and lacking a satisfactory explanation for the late pleading. Applying the Selkent balance of injustice and hardship and the rule 37 no reasonable prospect test, it allowed only one further allegation about Mark Perera not calling the claimant personally on her resignation to proceed as further information, with separate case management directions.