Mr S Thompson v Perrys Motor Sales Limited — 2022

This was a remote preliminary hearing before Employment Judge Bloch QC on 13 January 2022. The tribunal was dealing with the claimant's application to amend his existing unfair dismissal claim and his proposed amendment to add age discrimination. No substantive liability decision was made on the dismissal claim itself.

The unfair dismissal amendment was allowed. The judge treated the new point about the redundancy process, including the claimant's contention that he should have been excluded from the selection pool because he said he had the same skill set as Mr Nick Riley, as an extension of the existing unfair dismissal case rather than a new claim. Applying the Selkent approach, the tribunal found the amendment related to the existing facts, did not involve a substantial further legal enquiry, and would not cause substantial prejudice to the respondent.

The proposed age discrimination amendment did not proceed because the claimant withdrew it. He accepted that he could not prove that he had been badly treated on grounds of age and that he had no facts to support an age discrimination claim. The tribunal recorded that it was unnecessary to consider that amendment further, although the judge noted that if it had proceeded he would have been minded to reject it.

No compensation or other monetary remedy was awarded in this judgment, and no panel members were listed. The decision was limited to case management and amendment issues.