Carly Nelson v The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis Preliminary Hearing — 2024

At a preliminary hearing on 7 June 2024, Employment Judge Cox considered the claimant's amendment application, the respondent's strike-out application, and deposit orders. Carly Nelson had worked for the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 24 April 2006 until 22 March 2023 as a caseworker in the Referencing and Vetting Unit, had resigned on 22 February 2023, and had presented her ET1 on 25 April 2023. The pleaded complaints were unfair constructive dismissal, direct sex discrimination and harassment related to sex.

On the sex discrimination and harassment claims, the tribunal held that the allegations in draft issues 2(a)(i)(ii)(iv)(vii) and, insofar as they related to matters outside the employment relationship, 2(xi), concerned policing and other public functions rather than work under Part 5 of the Equality Act 2010. Applying the jurisdiction distinction discussed in London Borough of Waltham Forest v Martin and Tiplady v City of Bradford Metropolitan DC, it struck out those allegations, refused amendment to rely on the corresponding List of Incidents paragraphs for those purposes, and said they could not found a remedy in the Employment Tribunal.

For the remaining sex discrimination and harassment allegations, the tribunal allowed amendment but made a deposit order after concluding that the claimant had little prospect of showing the conduct was because of sex. It said the material before it pointed to non-discriminatory explanations, including the claimant's undeclared High Risk Declarable Association, the provision of temporary accommodation, the removal and return of her laptop, comments about the abusive partner, GDPR constraints, and a possible professional standards investigation. The tribunal also said there were no pleaded facts from which sex discrimination could properly be inferred, apart from the claimant's general assertion of misogyny in the ET1.

On unfair constructive dismissal, the tribunal refused to strike out the claim. It accepted that the implied term of trust and confidence had to be assessed in all the circumstances, but refused permission to amend the claim to rely on matters dated 10 March 2023 to 16 November 2023 because those events post-dated the resignation on 22 February 2023 and could not causally support it. Remaining amendments were allowed as clarifications, but the tribunal made a conditional deposit order of £25 for specified allegations; if the deposit was not paid, those amendments would not stand.