Mrs A S Blue v Represented by: Mr S Smith - Solicitor Irvine’s Limited — 2020

Mrs A S Blue worked for Irvine’s Ltd as a Bakery Counter Assistant from 1 March 2006 until 19 March 2020. She had already presented a constructive unfair dismissal claim. At a telephone preliminary hearing on 29 September 2020, the tribunal considered her application made on 7 August 2020 to amend the claim to add direct disability discrimination under s.13 Equality Act 2010 and harassment related to disability under s.26 Equality Act 2010. The proposed claims were said to arise from Achilles tendonitis, the 19 March 2020 telephone call with Mr Maurice Irvine, and the email correspondence of 12 and 14 April 2020.

Applying Selkent Bus Co Ltd v Moore, the tribunal refused the amendment. It held that the proposed Equality Act complaints were new causes of action rather than a relabelling of the constructive dismissal claim, that they lacked sufficient specification, and that the amendment application was out of time by two days after the ACAS-adjusted time limit. The tribunal was not satisfied that there were exceptional reasons to extend time under s.123(1)(b) Equality Act 2010. It also held that allowing the amendment would require fresh factual and legal enquiries, including whether the claimant was disabled, and would likely require further disclosure and witness evidence, causing greater prejudice to the respondent. The claimant’s existing constructive unfair dismissal claim remained live, and the tribunal made no substantive merits finding or remedy on the proposed Equality Act claims.