Over the last 5 years I have represented SCST on no less 13 occasions and we have succeeded in 12 and in the other we reduced the claim from £100,000 to £10,000. RE was the last of them, I hope.
RE resigned because (as the tribunal determined) he didn’t want to work any afternoons (as required under his contract) as his wife was ill after his flexible working application was declined due to the needs of the vulnerable people and pressure on his colleagues. He alleged that this was somehow connected with ‘whistleblowing’ and sex discrimination.
At a Preliminary Hearing in February his entire whistleblowing case was struck out (3/4 of the court papers) leaving a much smaller case for us to defend on discrimination. The discrimination case was then defeated.
This is another example of why advice at the internal stage is preferrable. If my client had taken the legal points then, the case would have probably never gone any further.
