Claimant v Thales DIS (UK) Limited

Outcome

Facts

The claimant was employed by the respondent (formerly Gemalto) for 19 years and was dismissed on 8 August 2018. He raised grievances about his supervisor Mr Mercer in July 2017 and April 2018. An incident with Mr Mercer occurred on 31 May 2018. The claimant brought a first tribunal claim in November 2018 for unfair dismissal only, which was dismissed as out of time. He brought this second claim in July 2020 for sex discrimination, and later sought to amend to add disability discrimination in March 2021. The respondent conceded he was disabled due to anxiety, depression, dyslexia, autism, ADHD and learning difficulties. The claims were substantially out of time (nearly 2 years for sex discrimination, over 2.5 years for disability discrimination).

Decision

The tribunal decided it was just and equitable to extend time to allow both the sex and disability discrimination claims to proceed to a full merits hearing. The judge accepted the claimant believed he had to exhaust the employer's grievance process first, thought he was 'deadlocked' into only claiming unfair dismissal after a Regional Employment Judge's decision on his first claim, and that his understanding and actions were impaired by his undisputed mental health challenges. The respondent had not demonstrated real evidential prejudice, and the prejudice to the claimant of losing his claims outweighed the prejudice to the respondent of defending them.

Practical note

Legal authorities cited