Mrs L Burns v Smokin’ Gun Fitness Ltd — 2022

At the preliminary hearing on 14 July 2022, Employment Judge M Kearns considered case management and jurisdiction issues in Mrs L Burns' claims against Smokin' Gun Fitness Ltd. The claimant had presented claims marked as pregnancy or maternity discrimination and sex discrimination, and the reasons note that she also claimed arrears of pay and automatically unfair dismissal under section 99 Employment Rights Act 1996. The judgment records that her further and better particulars also raised a sex-based pay disparity point and that it was unclear whether this was background material or an equal pay claim.

The tribunal identified that complaints about acts or omissions before 22 June 2021 might be out of time. It also noted that the claimant's legal basis for each discrimination allegation needed clarification, including whether each act was said to be pregnancy/maternity discrimination under section 18 Equality Act 2010, sex discrimination under section 13 or section 19, or both in the alternative. The judge referred to the protected period for section 18 and noted that the claimant's furlough and return to work raised an additional timing issue.

The tribunal reserved the time-bar questions to be determined at the full hearing. It held that the issue of whether there was 'conduct extending over a period' under section 123(3)(a) Equality Act 2010 was bound up with the merits, and cited South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust v King [2020] IRLR 168 (EAT) for the point that discriminatory acts cannot be run together with non-discriminatory acts for that purpose. No liability findings or monetary award were made at this stage; the tribunal instead ordered further written clarification from the claimant and responses from the respondent before a further case management hearing.