Mr M Headley v London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority — 2018

The decision concerned the Respondent's application under Rule 37(1) to strike out Mr Headley's claims. The Claimant remained employed as a Fire Officer/Crew Manager, and the claim arose from a formal grievance about an incident on 13 April 2017 involving Station Manager Cook. The pleaded claims before the Tribunal were direct race discrimination and victimisation under the Equality Act 2010, based on the handling of the grievance and appeal, including the investigation, disclosure of witness statements, mediation, and the wording of the grievance outcome letter.

Employment Judge Moor held that the claims had a reasonable prospect of success and refused to strike them out. The judgment records that the Tribunal could not say on the papers alone that the alleged detriments were unarguable, and that disputed matters such as the investigation, the treatment of witness statements, the allegation of bad faith, and the reason for non-disclosure would need to be tested at a full hearing. The Judge considered it arguable that the alleged differences between the investigations into Mr Headley's complaint and SM Cook's complaint, including the number of witnesses interviewed and the failure to speak to Mr Coleman, could support an inference of race discrimination or victimisation.

The Tribunal referred to the high threshold for strike out and to authorities including Ezsias, Sharma, Anyanwu, Igen v Wong and Shamoon. It also noted that Mr Headley said his grievance of 24 April 2017 was a protected act, and that whether the Respondent's explanation was non-discriminatory could only be resolved after hearing evidence. No remedy was awarded in this decision because the substantive claims were not determined.