Miss M Hunter v Lidl Great Britain Limited — 2023

The claimant, a customer assistant later promoted to shift manager, brought complaints including direct sex discrimination, harassment, equal pay, constructive unfair dismissal and unlawful deduction of wages. The Tribunal found that her direct sex discrimination claim about a refused transfer request was out of time, was not part of a continuing course of conduct, and was not made out on the facts.

The Tribunal accepted that the claimant was subjected to unwanted conduct of a sexual nature or related to sex, including comments with sexual overtones, unwanted physical contact, and conduct by a deputy store manager. It found that this conduct occurred in a workplace culture where such behaviour was allowed to go unchecked, that managers did not deal with her complaints, and that the respondent had not shown reasonable steps to prevent harassment.

On equal pay, the Tribunal found that the claimant performed like work to her male comparator and should have received the same hourly rate from April 2021. On dismissal, it found that harassment, pay concerns, failure to address her complaints, long hours and the final performance discussion issue amounted to a breach of mutual trust and confidence, entitling her to resign. The unlawful deduction claim succeeded only for three unpaid hours after clocking out on 16 June 2021; the other alleged deductions were dismissed or not proved.