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	United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal >> Whitley & Anor v Thompson [1997] UKEAT 1169_97_0812 (8 December 1997) URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/1997/1169_97_0812.html Cite as: [1997] UKEAT 1169_97_0812, [1997] UKEAT 1169_97_812

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APPEARANCES

 

For the Appellants	MR A POTTS (Representative) Humberside Law Centre 95 Alfred Gelder Street Hull HU1 1EP


 


MR JUSTICE MORISON (PRESIDENT): The purpose of this hearing is to identify whether there are points of law which are arguable on an appeal which Miss Cross and Mrs Whitley wish to bring against a decision of an Industrial Tribunal held at Hull, which dismissed their complaints of sex discrimination brought against their former employer, Mr John Thompson, who ran a business of training greyhounds, amongst other things.

The Applicants at the Industrial Tribunal had complained of a variety of specific incidents including being kissed by their employer. The way the appeal is put is firstly, that it is not possible from reading the decision of the Industrial Tribunal to know the basis upon which the Applicants lost their complaint.

It appears that the Industrial Tribunal found, for example, that there had been two or three incidents when one or other of the women was kissed, in circumstances in which the Tribunal say that kissing "is not an appropriate or advisable set of circumstances in the employment situation such as this", but went on to say, "nonetheless the tribunal do not find that that constitutes the claims which the applicants make".

It is argued by Mr Potts, on their behalf, that it is not clear from the face of the Industrial Tribunal decision why the Industrial Tribunal had reached the conclusion which they did. It seems to us that that is an arguable point of law.

It is also suggested that the Industrial Tribunal have arguably failed to direct themselves correctly, as to the law in relation to what is colloquially described as "sexual harassment". It might appear that they were unaware that sexual harassment is simply an aspect of discrimination on the grounds of sex which is outlawed by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. We regard that point as arguable.

In those circumstances we are prepared to allow both those points to be argued at a full hearing. If practicable I would like this case to be dealt with by either myself or the other High Court Judge who is sitting here, it being a sex discrimination case. I would think that it would be likely that the case would be half a day and no more. I do not consider that the Notes of Evidence are required for the points which are in issue and they will not be ordered.

The Notice of Appeal does not require amendment. It will be listed as Category B.