Aleksandr Zabolotnov v Medical Defence Shield Limited and 3 others — 2022

The claimant issued his claim on 22 April 2021 alleging race and sex discrimination, holiday pay, other payments and contractual breaches. The tribunal recorded that there was no unfair dismissal claim because he did not have the requisite service. The respondents denied the claims, and a preliminary hearing was listed for case management.

At the 7 December 2021 hearing there were connection difficulties when the claimant tried to join remotely. The judge found that the hearing adjourned until he was able to connect and that there had been no private discussion between the judge and the respondents without the claimant present. The case management hearing identified issues for a later open preliminary hearing, including limitation, whether breach of contract and wage deduction complaints could be brought against individual respondents, whether the pleaded contractual matters were capable of founding a claim, and whether the claimant's victimisation allegations relied on protected acts within section 27 of the Equality Act 2010.

The claimant later applied for the judge to recuse herself. In the reasons dated 26 May 2022, the judge applied the Porter v Magill test and concluded that there were no circumstances requiring recusal. The judge found there had been no bias, conscious or unconscious, and that the orders made were standard case management directions. The application for recusal was therefore refused. No final decision was made on the substantive claims in this judgment.