Mrs H Findik v Secretary of State for Justice RECORD OF A PRELIMINARY HEARING — 2023

The claimant presented a claim in August 2021 and had ticked disability discrimination and holiday pay. The tribunal recorded that, on an ordinary reading of the ET1, the disability claims were discrimination arising from disability under section 15 Equality Act 2010 and failure to make reasonable adjustments under sections 20 and 21. The respondent conceded that the claimant was disabled for the purposes of section 6 and Schedule 1 Equality Act 2010 by reason of three slipped discs in her neck.

The tribunal considered the claimant's application to amend her claims. It allowed the amendments to the section 15 claim and the reasonable adjustments claim, treating them as clarifications or additional detail connected to the existing pleaded claims. It did not decide time limit issues for the reasonable adjustments claim, leaving them to the Full Merits Hearing.

The tribunal refused the amendment to add a harassment claim under section 26 Equality Act 2010. It found that harassment was a wholly new claim, raised 11 months after presentation of the claim, and that the prejudice to the respondent of having to deal with that new claim was greater than depriving the claimant of it.