Miss Kidan Nags v Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust — 2024

The claimant presented her claim on 29 December 2022. At the preliminary hearing she confirmed that the remaining complaints were race discrimination claims arising from three unsuccessful recruitment exercises: ward clerk on 15 October 2020, float medical secretary on 15 March 2021, and ward clerk on 13 October 2021. She no longer pursued the medical secretary application of 29 June 2021. The tribunal held that the claims were brought outside the three-month limit in s123(1) Equality Act 2010, so the only issue was whether it was just and equitable to extend time.

The tribunal decided it was not just and equitable to extend time. It found that the last rejection was in or around October 2021, but ACAS was not contacted until 15 December 2022. The claimant said she had thought about bringing a claim at the time and had sought advice, but she chose not to do so then because she was still getting regular work and did not want to jeopardise the relationship with the respondent. The tribunal noted that she had not used any internal grievance process, did not rely on ill health, and that bereavement around the time she contacted ACAS did not explain the earlier delay.

The tribunal also accepted the respondent's prejudice arguments. By the hearing, a number of likely witnesses had left, some recruitment records were no longer retained on the system, and no contemporaneous investigation had been carried out because no complaint had been raised internally. It further considered that the claimant's prospects on the merits appeared limited, describing the race discrimination case as difficult to understand and largely speculative because she identified no evidence linking the recruitment decisions to race. On that basis, all remaining claims were dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.