Mr M Humphreys barrister For the v Ms E Mayhew-Hills consultant — 2023

The hearing on 12 May 2023 was a preliminary hearing on amendment and strikeout. The Tribunal applied the Selkent amendment factors, emphasising the balance of injustice and hardship, and also reviewed the strikeout authorities on Rule 37(1)(a), including the high threshold for saying a claim has no reasonable prospect of success.

On the age discrimination applications, the Tribunal said the pleaded basis was hard to understand, but it could not conclude that none of the claims had validity. Although the respondent argued that the claimants' ages at termination ranged from 41 to 73 and that this suggested no age discrimination, the Tribunal still declined to strike out the age discrimination claims and also declined to make a deposit order, leaving the reason for dismissal to be determined by the fact-finding tribunal.

The Tribunal allowed Miss Habib and Mrs Bhatti to provide further information in support of the redundancy dismissal claim, but refused to expand the case into free-standing sex discrimination or harassment claims because that would enlarge the factual inquiry and prejudice the respondent. Ms A Javed's sex discrimination complaint was struck out under Rule 37(1)(a) because it had no basis in the ET1 and no reasonable prospect of success. By consent, the statutory basis of the trade union activity claims was changed to sections 152 and 153 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.