Miss Gillian Sinclair v Sensee Ltd — 2023

Miss Sinclair brought a disability discrimination complaint after her employment with Sensee Limited ended on 21 November 2021. Earlier heads of complaint alleging breach of section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and GDPR were withdrawn and formally dismissed. The preliminary hearing on 23 January 2023 was listed to determine time bar, strike out, and a possible deposit order.

The Tribunal found that the ET1 presented on 19 May 2022 was out of time. Applying section 123 of the Equality Act 2010, it held that the relevant acts were in October and November 2021, that ACAS early conciliation did not begin until 1 April 2022, and that the three-month time limit had expired by 20 February 2022 at the latest. The Tribunal accepted that the claimant had been following the grievance process, but held that she knew the relevant facts, was aware of the three-month time limit, and gave no adequate explanation for the further delay between 22 April and 19 May 2022.

On the just and equitable question, the Tribunal weighed the length of the delay, the grievance and appeal process, and prejudice. It accepted that the grievance appeal outcome was not issued until 15 March 2022 and that there was no substantial basis to find actual forensic prejudice to the respondents, but it concluded that the overall balance still made it unjust and inequitable to extend time. In the alternative, and in any event, the Tribunal granted strike out under Rule 37(1)(a) because the claim had no reasonable prospects of success, including because the claimant had not materially complied with earlier orders to particularise the allegations or provide medical evidence and the legal basis of the disability complaint remained unspecified. The Tribunal therefore dismissed the claim in its entirety and said a deposit order was unnecessary, although it added that if the case had gone on it would have ordered £100 per allegation.