EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case No: 4104420/2020 Mrs L Bloomfield v Represented by: Self Nordfields Properties Ltd — 2021

On the respondents' application, the tribunal reconsidered and set aside its earlier rule 21 judgment. It accepted Mr Shields' evidence that the tribunal's communications, including the claim form, had probably been misfiled in the respondents' office after the pandemic lockdown and only discovered on 19 October. The tribunal found that explanation for the delay was satisfactory and honest, and that the balance of prejudice favoured allowing the respondents time to defend the case.

The tribunal then dealt with the claimant's sex discrimination claim under the Equality Act 2010. It found that the claim was presented on 19 August 2020, that the complained-of acts occurred by 11 March 2020 at the latest, and that there was no later act after 18 April 2020 that linked the matter into a continuing act. The termination on 14 June 2020 was not pleaded by the claimant as an act of sex discrimination. The tribunal also recorded that the 16 May 2020 grievance did not amount to a protected act under section 27, and that harassment was not alleged.

Applying section 123 of the Equality Act 2010, together with Bexley Community Centre (trading as Leisure Link) v Robertson and Adedeji v University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, the tribunal concluded that it was not just and equitable to extend time. It found the delay from around 10 June to 19 August 2020 was not satisfactorily explained and that the claimant had not acted promptly once she knew action could be taken. The sex discrimination claims were therefore dismissed. The judgment ended by noting that a wrongful dismissal claim remained and was within the primary time limit, but no further outcome on that claim is recorded in the supplied text.