Mr A Bedeau v Mr S Murrells — 2022

This was the sixth claim arising from the same underlying dispute. It was brought solely against Mr S Murrells, the CEO of Co-op, after earlier claims against Co-op itself. At the hearing on 15 February 2022, Employment Judge Russell considered strike out under rule 37 of the Employment Tribunal Rules of Procedure 2013 and applied the usual caution described in the authorities cited in the reasons.

The Tribunal struck out the unfair dismissal, unauthorised deduction from wages, and holiday pay claims because those causes of action could not succeed against Mr Murrells individually. The judgment records that claims of unfair dismissal and wage-related deductions must be brought against the employer, and that the Tribunal had no jurisdiction to determine those claims against this respondent.

The race discrimination claim was also struck out. The Tribunal accepted that the Equality Act 2010 can permit claims against individual employees or those who aid, instruct, cause or induce discrimination, but found that the pleaded case against Mr Murrells remained too vague to identify a viable factual basis. Even after the claimant was given an opportunity to explain the allegations in more detail, the Tribunal found the case depended on assumptions that Mr Mills-White must have been acting unlawfully and that Mr Murrells, as CEO, must therefore have authorised discrimination.

Applying the authorities it cited, including Ukegheson v Haringey Borough Council, Cox v Adecco, Hoppe v HMRC, and Miles v Gilbank, the Tribunal concluded that there were no facts giving any reasonable prospect of proving that Mr Murrells had aided or instructed any contravention of the Equality Act 2010. All claims against Mr Murrells were therefore struck out, and the judgment records that the claims against Co-op would proceed separately.