Dr May Al-Sakkal v Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust — 2025

Employment Judge Humble determined this preliminary hearing on whether the claims should be struck out. The claimant was employed by the first respondent NHS Trust through a tripartite training arrangement, and her employment terminated on 7 February 2024 following loss of her training number after an unsuccessful professional review. The tribunal struck out the unfair dismissal claim against the first respondent on the basis that there was no reasonable prospect of establishing it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim within the s.111(2) ERA 1996 statutory time limit. The claim against the second respondent had no reasonable prospect of success because he was not the claimant's employer. The tribunal found no other valid claims before it: the freestanding complaints about handling of the grievance and failure to provide a reference are not within the tribunal's jurisdiction. Late references in the claimant's correspondence to discrimination based on race, religion or age did not constitute a valid amendment application, and even if treated as one, leave would not have been granted given the long delay and lack of particularisation. The claims were dismissed.

Source tags (gov.uk)

• Unfair Dismissal

• s.111(2) Employment Rights Act 1996
• Pearce v Bank of America Merrill Lynch
• Reed In Partnership Ltd v Fraine
• Wall's Meat Co Ltd v Khan [1979] ICR 52
• Marks & Spencer PLC v Williams-Ryan [2005] EWCA Civ 470
• Smith v Pimlico Plumbers
• Dedman v British Building and Engineering Appliances Ltd
• Palmer v Southend on Sea Borough Council [1984] IRLR 119
• Balls v Downham Market High School and College [2011] IRLR 217
• Mechkarov v Citibank NA [2016] ICR 1121
• Aziz v FDA [2010] EWCA Civ 304
• Selkent Bus v Moore [1996] IRLR 661

The full judgment is available on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

• Judgment 1 (PDF) ↗
• Judgment 2 (PDF) ↗