Mr M Goodrum v Virgin Media Limited; and and 1 other — 2021

The hearing was a preliminary hearing on strike out and amendment before Employment Judge KJ Palmer sitting alone. The claimant's ET1, presented on 30 July 2019, included constructive unfair dismissal, age and disability discrimination, victimisation, reasonable adjustments and a section 14 Equality Act claim. By the time of this hearing, the claimant had already withdrawn all disability discrimination claims other than those arising from the March 2019 interview, and a deposit order remained in place for the live disability claims.

The tribunal struck out the claimant's historic discrimination allegations relating to recruitment events in Autumn 2013, Spring 2014, Summer 2014, Spring 2015 and Spring 2016. It held that the matters were separate recruitment decisions involving different people and different roles, with no obvious connection and no continuing act for the purposes of section 123(3) Equality Act 2010. The tribunal relied on Hendricks, Owusu, John Arthur and Unilever in reaching that conclusion, and refused to extend time under the just and equitable test because the delay was lengthy, the respondents would be prejudiced, relevant documents and decision-makers were no longer available, and no adequate explanation for the delay was given.

The claimant's application to amend his claim to add direct disability discrimination and perceived disability discrimination was refused under Selkent. The judge found the papers did not clearly plead new direct or perceived disability claims, the application was made nearly a year after the ET1 and around two years into proceedings, and the proposed amendments did not add anything material to the existing section 15 disability-arising case. The remaining claim was left to proceed to a further case-management hearing on 25 August 2021, and no monetary award was made at this preliminary stage.