United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal

APPEARANCES

 

For the Appellant	THE APPELLANT IN PERSON


 


LORD JOHNSTON: This is an appeal at the instance of the appellant employee against the decision of the Employment Tribunal on a preliminary point that his claim in respect of race discrimination is out of time and should be struck out. He also has a claim for unfair dismissal but that is being allowed to proceed to the Employment Tribunal.

1. The decision of the Employment Tribunal in this respect is to be found in paragraph 5 of their decision where they held, in essence, that there was not sufficient evidence to enable them to hold that section 68(7)(b) of the Race Relations Act 1976 had been complied with in the sense of a continuous act or acts which would be deemed to continue until the termination of the employment.
2. Mr Wandou, appearing for himself, produced letters, the most important one of which is dated 16th April 1996, which would indicate that the issue of race discrimination was alive at the time of his suspension and while still running during the contract of employment's existence.
3. The Employment Tribunal does not seem to have appreciated that the actual date of dismissal was 23rd May 1996 and that this claim was presented to the Employment Tribunal on 19th July 1996 which is just within the relevant three-month period.
4. In view of what has been presented to us we are prepared to accept that there is at least an issue as to whether or not the allegations of racial discrimination were still continuing at the date of the termination of the employment.
5. In these circumstances, since this is a preliminary hearing, we consider that there is an issue to try on the question of whether or not the application in relation to race discrimination was made out in terms of time limits. In these circumstances we will send this case on to a full hearing in order to give the respondents the opportunity of representation and to make sure that we have not miscued the dates in question. But at least at this stage there is sufficient confusion in our minds that the matter should proceed to a full hearing and we will so order.