Serco Home Affairs Ltd v Watson

A statutory grievance must identify the complaint later pursued in sufficiently clear terms. Technical precision is unnecessary, but a general allegation of racial harassment or bullying will not ordinarily identify multiple acts or the persons responsible. Individuals may be joined as respondents only where they were named in the grievance, or could be identified from it. A grievance must remain extant; where it has been resolved or closed, a fresh written grievance is required. Matters arising after the grievance cannot be introduced by amendment where the statute required them first to be the subject of a grievance.

The claimant brought race and religion or belief discrimination claims against her employer. Following a case management discussion, the Employment Tribunal struck out the religion or belief claim but allowed various race-related allegations, including allegations involving individual respondents, to proceed. The tribunal considered that the claimant’s written grievance and later grievance meeting sufficiently covered the claims, and that later events could be added by amendment.

The employer appealed, challenging the adequacy and continuing status of the grievance, the inclusion of post-grievance matters, and the addition of individual respondents.

1. The appeal was allowed. The Employment Tribunal’s decision was quashed, and the claimant’s claim was ordered to stand struck out or dismissed.
2. Under section 32(2) and Schedule 2 Part II of the Employment Act 2002, the grievance must be essentially the same complaint as that later advanced. The requirement is not technical or legalistic. However, the employer must be able, on a fair reading in context, to appreciate the relevant complaint.
3. Where a claimant relies on several acts and several alleged perpetrators, a bare assertion of racial harassment or bullying does not identify the complaints sufficiently. The grievance in this case did not adequately bear the ten matters permitted by the tribunal. Matters explained at the grievance meeting could not cure an inadequate written grievance.
4. A grievance must be extant when proceedings are commenced. If it has been satisfactorily dealt with, closed, or abandoned, the employee must raise the complaint again in writing. The correspondence and meeting record showed that the claimant’s grievance had been closed and that a line had been drawn under past grievances.
5. Claims arising after the only grievance cannot be introduced by amendment where they were themselves subject to the statutory grievance requirement. Prakash v Wolverhampton Council concerned a claim accruing after the claim form, and did not justify adding later claims arising after the grievance.
6. The Selkent principles apply when adding individual respondents whose names do not appear in the grievance or original claim form. The tribunal must first ask whether allegations were made in properly constituted proceedings against named respondents and, if not, whether joinder is nevertheless appropriate.

• Employment Appeal Tribunal: Allowed the appeal, quashed the Employment Tribunal’s decision, and held that the claimant’s claim must stand struck out or dismissed.
• Employment Tribunal: At a case management discussion, struck out the religion or belief discrimination claim but allowed the relevant race discrimination allegations to proceed.