Sandra Messi v Sonia Brosnan and 2 others — 2024

The claimant presented her claim on 7 August 2023 after early conciliation. The tribunal recorded that the dispute arose from a short assignment beginning on 7 July 2023, when Sandra Messi was assigned by Zoom Recruitment Limited to work at Bibendum Limited as a warehouse administrator. She worked two shifts for R2 on 9 and 10 July 2023, was off sick from 11 July 2023, and did not return. The heads of claim identified by the tribunal were direct race discrimination, harassment related to race, equal pay against R3, failure to make reasonable adjustments, and victimisation. The claimant also relied on alleged disclosures on 21 and 22 July 2023 as protected acts for the victimisation complaint.

The preliminary hearing was focused on strike out under Rule 37(1)(b). The tribunal noted that the claimant had brought at least 19 other Employment Tribunal claims and had extensive tribunal experience. It found that after the earlier preliminary hearing she sent a very large volume of correspondence to the tribunal and copied in numerous unrelated recipients, including the respondents, their solicitor and counsel, employees, MPs, regulators and other bodies. The tribunal also found that she did not cooperate with the respondents in preparing for the hearing, including by failing to disclose relevant documents relating to employment status, failing to produce a list of documents, and sending documents in a haphazard way by email.

Applying Rule 37 and the overriding objective, the tribunal held that the manner in which the proceedings had been conducted was scandalous, unreasonable and vexatious. It found that the claim had already subjected the respondents to disproportionate inconvenience, harassment and expense, and that a fair hearing was no longer possible. It therefore struck out the whole claim and did not deal with the remaining applications. The tribunal also rejected the claimant's application to strike out the respondents' response for alleged non-compliance, because she could not identify any clear breach. No merits findings or monetary award were made.