Mr. R Mbah v Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK Limited — 2024

This was a reserved preliminary judgment by Employment Judge Heap sitting alone. No evidence was heard. The tribunal refused the claimant's application to amend the race discrimination claim to add an allegation that on 13 September 2019 Scott Doyle called him a 'faggot' and a 'twit'. The judge held that this was a new factual allegation, was over four and a half years out of time, and had not been shown to have a sufficient race nexus. The judge also recorded that allegations 1 and 2 from the earlier case management order were no longer pursued as race discrimination and would remain only as background to the constructive dismissal complaint.

On the race discrimination claim, the tribunal did not finally determine limitation or jurisdiction because the parties disputed the date and content of the last alleged act. The claimant said the final act was a 20 July 2023 announcement that 140 employees would be promoted as temporary team leaders, while the respondent said the relevant briefing was on 17 July 2023 and did not refer to promotions. Taking the claimant's case at its highest, the judge left the jurisdiction issue to the final hearing and listed the surviving direct discrimination allegations as the 2018 ATM-course complaint, the October 2021 recommendation of Darren Allen, the 21 March 2021 grievance issue, and the 20 July 2023 promotion decision.

The tribunal declined to strike out the constructive dismissal complaint and declined to make a deposit order. Applying Rule 39 and taking the claimant's case at its highest, the judge held that the claim could not be said to have little reasonable prospect of success if the claimant could prove the alleged pattern of denied promotion and the 20 July 2023 decision. No monetary award was made at this stage, and both the constructive dismissal and race discrimination claims were left for the final hearing on the surviving issues.