Claimant v Stagecoach and Others — 2022

The claimant presented complaints of unfair dismissal, sex and age discrimination, and wage and holiday pay issues. This preliminary hearing on 17 February 2022 was concerned with three issues only: the identity of the employer, whether the claimant had been reinstated so that the dismissal was wiped out, and whether the discrimination allegations arising from 1 June 2018 were out of time.

On the employer point, the tribunal noted that the contract and disciplinary paperwork referred variously to Stagecoach and Western Buses Limited. It was inclined to the view that Western Buses Limited was the claimant's employer, but because the evidence on the relationship between the companies was incomplete, it added Western Buses Limited as a respondent so that the merits tribunal would have the company said to admit it was the former employer before it.

On reinstatement, the respondent relied on appeal outcome letters of 27 January 2021 and 8 March 2021 offering a return as a backshift cleaner at Ayr depot, with no pay from the date of dismissal and a live final written warning. The tribunal held that, on the material before it, the claimant had not been restored to the position she would have occupied had she never been dismissed: the proposed move to a different depot, the absence of back pay, and the lack of evidence of the alleged union/management agreement meant the offer was treated as re-employment on a new contract rather than reinstatement that excised the dismissal. The tribunal therefore held that it had jurisdiction to hear the unfair dismissal claim.

On time bar, the tribunal dealt with two alleged sex discrimination incidents on 1 June 2018: a comment attributed to Mr Thomson and the failure to provide a key to the ladies' toilet. It held that these were relatively minor but separate one-off events, not part of a continuing course of conduct, and that the claim had been presented more than two years later without a basis for extension. It concluded that it would not be just and equitable to extend time, so the sex discrimination claim based on the 1 June 2018 घटनाओं was dismissed for want of jurisdiction.