Mr P Chmielewski v The Symphony Group plc — 2024

At the preliminary hearing on 1 October 2024 before Employment Judge Deeley in Leeds by CVP, the tribunal dealt with the claimant's unfair dismissal, disability discrimination, race discrimination and redundancy payment complaints. The claimant's ET1 had been presented on 12 October 2023 after ACAS early conciliation, and although the form itself was in English the attached particulars of claim were in Polish. The Legal Officer had accepted the claim and told the claimant that an English translation would be needed if the particulars were to form part of the claim. The claimant later provided a sworn English translation on 5 December 2023, and the respondent filed amended grounds of resistance on 13 December 2023.

The redundancy payment complaint was dismissed on withdrawal by the claimant with the respondent's consent. The race discrimination complaints were struck out under Rule 27. The tribunal found that, nearly a year after presentation, the claimant still could not identify any specific race discrimination complaint beyond vague allegations about being called to meetings with management and HR, could not identify any non-Polish comparators in similar circumstances, and had not put forward facts capable of meeting the initial burden of proof for race discrimination. The judge also said the claim would have been struck out under Rule 37 for the same reasons if Rule 27 had not been the correct route.

The unfair dismissal and disability discrimination complaints were not struck out. Applying the authorities on strike-out and sensible response, the tribunal held that the unfair dismissal claim could sensibly be responded to because the respondent knew the claimant had been dismissed on 13 July 2023 following long-term sickness absence from 2 November 2021. The disability discrimination complaints overlapped substantially with the unfair dismissal case, the translated particulars had been provided, and the tribunal could not say that those complaints had no reasonable prospect of success. The tribunal nevertheless made deposit orders in relation to the unfair dismissal and disability discrimination claims because it considered both had little reasonable prospect of success, and those remaining complaints were allowed to proceed.