Miss C Rooney v Scottish Autism — 2020

The tribunal dealt only with a preliminary issue on time limits for Miss C Rooney's sex discrimination complaint against Scottish Autism. It found that the post of Senior Autism Practitioner had been advertised between 11 and 25 October 2019 while the claimant was on maternity leave, that she did not learn of the advertisement until the evening of 11 February 2020, and that she raised the issue promptly with her line manager the next day before lodging a grievance on 13 February 2020.

The tribunal held that time ran from 25 October 2019, but that it was just and equitable to extend time under section 123(1)(b) of the Equality Act 2010. In reaching that conclusion, it accepted that the claimant was unaware of the facts giving rise to the complaint until 11 February 2020, that the internal grievance and appeal process took time and was delayed by the Covid pandemic, and that she waited for that process to finish because she thought her appeal might succeed.

The tribunal also noted that the claimant sought advice from Unison and ACAS, that detailed advice on time limits was obtained on 14 May 2020, and that the claim was presented on 2 June 2020 after the ACAS certificate issued on 26 May 2020. It found that the delay would not significantly affect the cogency of the evidence, given the narrow factual matrix and the grievance history, and it weighed the prejudice to each side before allowing the sex discrimination claim to proceed to a final hearing.