Mr E Elsamelghi v Lloyds Bank plc and Reed Specialist Recruitment: 2405886/2019

EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS

Case No 2405886/2019

Between

Mr E ElsamelghiClaimant

Lloyds Bank plc and Reed Specialist RecruitmentRespondent

Before

Employment Judge Sherratt

In person for claimant

Date 12 November 2020

JUDGMENT

The judgment of the Tribunal is that the claimant’s claims under the Equality Act 2010 brought under the protected characteristics of religion or belief are dismissed on withdrawal.

REASONS

[1]I conducted today’s preliminary hearing in public via the Cloud-based Video Platform (CVP).

[2]I had provided to me by the parties a hearing bundle in PDF format comprising 157 pages (references to which below are in square brackets) and an agenda for case management purposes. Other documents were provided to me during the course of the hearing. These were the 2nd respondent’s strike out application dated 30 March 2020; a supporting bundle of documents comprising 19 pages; the 2nd respondent’s skeleton argument; and the claimant’s email of 11 November 2020 with two documents attached.

[3]I took witness evidence from Ms Hazel Pickles for the 2nd respondent and I heard from the claimant in support of his position on the preliminary issues. I am also grateful to be both counsel for their submissions and to the 2nd respondent’s solicitor for his assistance with documents.

The claim

[4]This claim arises from an early conciliation process concluded on 11 and 12 April 2019 [2-3]. A claim on form ET1 was then presented to the Employment Tribunal by the claimant on 23 May 2019 [4-21]. The respondents responded to the claim on form ET3 on 1 July 2019 [22-31] and 27 June 2019 [32-43] respectively. The claimant provided undated further particulars of his claim and an initial schedule of loss following a case management hearing on 9 December 2019 [51-67 and 68-71].

[5]The earlier preliminary hearing for case management purposes was held by