Case 3307733/2024 · Employment Tribunal
Dr M Kulczynska v AQA Education RECORD OF A PRELIMINARY HEARING — 2025
- Case reference
- 3307733/2024
- Decision date
- 29 July 2025
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Boyes
- Venue
- Reading
Parties
2 namedClaimant
Dr M Kulczynska
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe claimant brought complaints of direct race discrimination and direct disability discrimination arising from her work as an examiner and the respondent's decision not to offer her a contract for the summer 2024 examinations. The respondent applied to strike out the claims, denied discrimination, and said it had not been satisfied with the services provided during the 2023 examination series.
The tribunal struck out the direct race discrimination complaint. It found that, even taking the claimant's case at its highest, there was no reasonable prospect of showing that any less favourable treatment was because of race as defined by section 9(1) of the Equality Act 2010, because the language abilities relied on were dissociable from race, nationality and national origins.
The tribunal refused to strike out the direct disability discrimination complaint. It was not satisfied on the evidence before it that the manner in which the proceedings were being conducted justified strike out, and considered that any issues about conduct should be addressed through case management rather than striking out the remaining claim.
Claims and outcomes
2 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race discrimination | The direct race discrimination complaint was struck out at a preliminary hearing under rule 38(1)(a) because it had no reasonable prospects of success. | Struck out | Race | — |
| Disability discrimination | The respondent's application to strike out the direct disability discrimination complaint was refused; the complaint was not finally determined in this judgment. | Other | Disability | — |
Legal tests applied
5 references- rule 38(1)(a) of The Employment Tribunal Procedure Rules 2024
- section 9(1) Equality Act 2010
- R (on the application of E) v Governing Body of JFS and another [2009] UKSC 15
- Taiwo v Olaigbe [2016] UKSC 31
- Gwynedd County Council v Jones [1986] I.C.R. 833
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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