Mr F Scoon v Moorepay Limited — 2021

At the preliminary hearing on 15 January 2021, the tribunal dealt with a number of pleaded discrimination claims with the parties' consent and recorded that most had been withdrawn by the claimant and dismissed. It also noted that the claimant's application to amend to add a victimisation claim based on an email of 26 November 2020 was withdrawn and dismissed. The tribunal identified four direct discrimination complaints that were not being finally determined at that stage and were to proceed to a final hearing in June 2022: race discrimination in relation to the L&D post, sex and race discrimination for lack of support and development between 18 October 2019 and 12 February 2020, and two race discrimination complaints about the grievance process.

The only other claim clearly identified for decision was a victimisation complaint under section 27 of the Equality Act 2010. The claimant said the protected act was raising equal pay issues on 11 May 2019 and alleged that exclusion from the November 2019 annual pay review followed from that complaint. The tribunal accepted the respondent's evidence that the claimant had received a special one-off pay increase after 1 August 2019 and that this explained why he was not in the annual review cycle. After discussion, the claimant accepted that he could not point to facts linking the protected act to the detriment and relied only on his opinion, so the tribunal held the claim had no reasonable prospects of success and dismissed it.

The tribunal refused to strike out the remaining four direct discrimination complaints. Its decision was limited to narrowing the case: all other claims were dismissed or withdrawn, no remedy was awarded, and the identified direct discrimination complaints were left to be heard on the merits later.