Mrs Laura Warner v CenterParcs Limited — 2019

This was an open preliminary hearing before Employment Judge Alliott sitting alone on 7 August 2020, following an earlier order to consider strike out and deposit issues. The tribunal applied the approach that strike out or deposit applications must be assessed on the claimant's case at its highest, and noted that discrimination claims are only struck out in the clearest cases because they are fact sensitive.

The tribunal considered the claimant's unfair dismissal and disability discrimination complaints but did not strike them out. On unfair dismissal, the dismissal had been with immediate effect on 22 August 2019 after an incident on 4 August 2019 in the Plant Room, and there was a dispute about what the health and safety instructions and training required, including whether the claimant should have worn full PPE. On disability discrimination, the claimant said she had anxiety, vasovagal attacks and menorrhagia; the tribunal could not decide at that stage whether she met the Equality Act 2010 definition of disability and ordered further particulars of how the claim was put.

The only claim finally determined at this hearing was the detriment claim for making a protected disclosure. The claimant relied on a section 15 allegation about pool observation checks and said the detriment was a warning in September 2018 for leaving the pool unattended. The tribunal held that this was a single free-standing event more than a year before the claim form, concluded that the claim had no reasonable prospect of success because it was out of time, and found there was no prospect of extending time on a just and equitable basis. It therefore struck out that head of claim.