Case 3312702/2020 · Employment Tribunal
Mr Ibekwe (PTSC Union) For the v Respondent — 2021
- Case reference
- 3312702/2020
- Decision date
- 26 July 2021
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Anderson Appearances
- Venue
- Watford
Parties
1 namedClaimant
Mr Ibekwe (PTSC Union) For the
Respondent
- —
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe claimant brought a race harassment complaint arising from the instigation and completion of a disciplinary process that ended on 6 December 2019, and from delay in concluding a grievance process that began on 16 April 2019 and ended on 8 August 2020. The tribunal held the disciplinary and grievance matters were not one continuing act, noting that the parties had agreed the two processes should not be dealt with at the same time and that the disciplinary sanction had been upheld on appeal and rescinded.
On limitation, the tribunal held the disciplinary allegation was out of time under section 123 of the Equality Act 2010, but it was just and equitable to extend time to 22 October 2020, the date the claim was presented. The claimant had waited for the grievance process to be exhausted before filing, and the tribunal considered that the prejudice to him in not hearing the claim outweighed the prejudice to the respondent.
The tribunal declined to strike out the claim, saying it could not be certain on the preliminary papers that the claim had no reasonable prospect of success, although it described the case as weak and noted that the pleading did not clearly explain why the acts were said to be racially motivated. It then made a deposit order because the claim had little reasonable prospect of success, first fixing the total deposit at £350 and then specifying £175 for each of the two separate acts.
Claims and outcomes
1 finding recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harassment | Preliminary hearing only; no merits determination. The tribunal held the disciplinary allegation and the grievance-delay allegation were not one continuing act. It found the disciplinary allegation out of time under section 123 Equality Act 2010, but extended time to 22 October 2020 on a just and equitable basis. The claim was not struck out, but the tribunal made a deposit order because it considered the claim weak and of little reasonable prospect of success, initially totalling £350 and then specifying £175 in relation to each of the two separate acts. | Other | Race | — |
Legal tests applied
5 references- section 123 Equality Act 2010
- just and equitable extension of time
- rule 37 Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013
- rule 39 Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013
- little reasonable prospect of success
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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