Ms H Brady & Others v Represented by: Mr G Booth, Consultant North Lanarkshire Council — 2019

This was a preliminary hearing in Ms H Brady & 90 Others v North Lanarkshire Council. The claimants were bringing equal pay claims. The respondent applied to strike out the claims under Rule 37(1)(b) of the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013, arguing that the manner in which the proceedings had been conducted by the claimants' representative, DM Legal Claims Ltd, was scandalous, unreasonable and vexatious.

The application arose from social media comments made by Donna-Marie Gray of DM Legal Claims Ltd. The tribunal recorded an earlier Facebook comment referring to the respondent as "bastards" and a later post on 9 January 2019 using offensive language in response to the respondent's correspondence. The tribunal referred to Bennett v London Borough of Southwark, De Keyser Ltd v Wilson, Bolch v Chipman and Blockbuster Entertainment Ltd v James when setting out the approach to strike out for conduct in the proceedings.

The tribunal found that the 9 January 2019 post was not unrelated to the respondent or the proceedings, because it was made in response to correspondence sent in relation to the equal pay cases and an earlier undertaking. It held that the representative's conduct was scandalous and unreasonable within Rule 37(1)(b), but also found that the claimants themselves had not engaged in the conduct and that a fair trial was still possible. On that basis, strike out was refused, and the tribunal strongly advised against any repetition of the conduct.

The tribunal also accepted that the 5 January 2019 Facebook comment did not directly relate to the proceedings. No substantive equal pay liability or remedy was determined in this judgment.