Mr M French v Informa UK Limited — 2019

The respondent applied to strike out the breach of contract and whistleblowing complaints, or alternatively for deposit orders on the discrimination allegations. The tribunal struck out the breach of contract complaint because the claimant had been paid one week in lieu of notice and the contract provided for a one-week notice period during the first three months. It also struck out the sections 47B and 103A complaints because the disclosure relied on was made after both the dismissal decision on 26 September 2018 and the decision on 21 September 2018 not to offer permanent roles, so the required causal link was absent.

On the age discrimination allegations, the tribunal refused to strike out the complaints as a whole because the reason why was fact-sensitive and needed evidence, especially on issues 4.6(b) and 4.6(c). However, it found several other age allegations had little reasonable prospect of success, in part because the claimant and the alleged comparators were all in their 20s or otherwise in a similar age range, and because some of the complaints appeared to rest mainly on the claimant's perception rather than evidence of an age-related cause. It therefore made deposit orders for the age allegations identified in paragraph 50.

On the sex discrimination complaints, the tribunal also refused strike out because the central facts and reason why were disputed. Even so, it found the direct sex discrimination allegations at issues 4.6(i) and 4.6(j) had little reasonable prospect of success because there was no apparent link between the treatment complained of and sex, and one allegation concerned a post-dismissal letter while the other concerned the grievance outcome. The claimant was ordered to pay deposits of £200 for each of ten allegations, totalling £2,000, after the tribunal considered his earnings, monthly outgoings, savings and the proportionality of the order.