Case 3312691/2023 · Employment Tribunal
Ms C Downing v Marks and Spencer plc — 2025
- Case reference
- 3312691/2023
- Decision date
- 25 July 2025
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Margo
- Panel members
- Mrs A Buck, Ms B Robinson
Parties
2 namedClaimant
Ms C Downing
Respondent
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe tribunal upheld the claimant's claim of discrimination contrary to s.18 of the Equality Act 2010, finding that it succeeded in relation to her role being filled with a permanent replacement employee when she went on maternity leave. It also upheld her s.15 Equality Act 2010 claim concerning the unfavourable treatment of being dismissed.
The tribunal upheld the claimant's failure to make reasonable adjustments claim in relation to the performance management policy, the practice of advertising new roles to all employees and selected roles externally, and the practice of requiring an internal candidate to apply for a new role. The unfair dismissal claim also succeeded, while all other claims were dismissed.
The tribunal directed that a 25% reduction should be made to any compensatory award to reflect the prospect that the claimant would have been fairly dismissed from the alternative role of Propositions Manager in Clothing & Home after six months. Remedy was reserved to a further hearing.
Claims and outcomes
5 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pregnancy and maternity discrimination | Discrimination contrary to s.18 of the Equality Act 2010 succeeded in relation to the claimant's role being filled with a permanent replacement employee when she went on maternity leave. | Upheld | Pregnancy and maternity | — |
| Disability discrimination | The s.15 Equality Act 2010 claim succeeded in respect of the unfavourable treatment of being dismissed. | Upheld | Disability | — |
| Disability discrimination | The failure to make reasonable adjustments claim succeeded in respect of the performance management policy, advertising new roles, and requiring an internal candidate to apply for a new role. | Upheld | Disability | — |
| Unfair dismissal | Recorded from the judgment. | Upheld | — | — |
| Other | The judgment states that all other claims were dismissed, but the short judgment text does not identify those claims. | Dismissed | — | — |
Legal tests applied
2 references- s.18 of the Equality Act 2010
- s.15 of the Equality Act 2010
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.
Named in this case and want it removed? Submit a takedown request. The page will be withdrawn on receipt and the editor will follow up within five working days.