Mr P Levick v London Luton Airport Operations Ltd and 3 others — 2018

This was a preliminary hearing in the claimant's second tribunal claim. The claimant withdrew the claims for unpaid holiday pay and arrears of pay, and the tribunal dismissed those claims on withdrawal. The judge also dealt with disability status, the timeliness and jurisdiction of the unfair dismissal and breach of contract/wrongful dismissal claims, and an application to amend to add disability discrimination allegations.

On disability, Judge George reviewed the occupational health evidence, GP records and the claimant's oral evidence and found that he had been disabled by reason of depression since February 2017. The judge accepted recurrent depressive disorder with fluctuating symptoms, medication and counselling, and concluded that without medication the condition would have had a substantial adverse effect on day-to-day activities. The evidence of atrial fibrillation was treated as having limited direct effect, with the main finding turning on depression.

The unfair dismissal and breach of contract/wrongful dismissal claims were struck out because they were presented three days out of time, the claimant accepted it had been reasonably practicable to present them in time, and the tribunal held it had no jurisdiction to extend time for those claims. The tribunal granted leave to amend to add complaints under s.15 Equality Act 2010 and the duty to make reasonable adjustments, holding that the proposed amendments overlapped materially with the existing harassment and victimisation case and that any limitation issues and the merits were better left to the final hearing.