Harassment Claim related to Age Discrimination

[Poly]

I am being troubled by the Respondents as I have particularised my claim for harassment relating to age in the list of issues, and cited around 10 occurrences. They are challenging my right to do this at this stage of the proceedings - the list of issues has been agreed (apart from this). When I completed the ET1 there is no head of claim relating to Harassment on the official listing of codes found on courtserve.net. IN fact the word "Harassment" appears nowhere!

Have I done something wrong?

Thanks

[ULA]

Please can you confirm your use of courtserve
net and these codes you mentioned.

Your ET1 form should have been downloaded from the government website.

If you are claiming harassment as a result of age discrimination you should have particularised this either within the ET1 form at section 8.2, or in a separate Particulars of Claim (PoC) document submitted at the same time as your ET1.

[Poly]

Thank you very much for your reply. This is a clickable link: CourtServe - Jurisdiction Codes .

In my ET1 form and 8.2 PoC, I did not put Harassment due to Age Discrimination in my Head of Claims, just Age Discrimination, however, in my conclusion I wrote, "suffered age discrimination resulting in breach of contract and unfair dismissal. The lack of an adequate investigation into my claim of discrimination against the Respondent amounted to multiple examples of harassment."

Earlier in my PoC , I had cited a dozen or so examples of the Respondent's behaviour towards me that I described as harassment, which I then referenced in the conclusion.

[ULA]

The website you are referring to provides a service to the media and legal.community about court listings. The abbreviations you have linked to in your post are for this purpose only and not relevant for the completion of an ET1 claim.

Harassment is a claim as a result of unwanted behaviour due to discrimination, which from the limited information you have set out appears not to have been particularised as such. Given this, I am thinking that maybe the respondent is suggesting that you are trying to add this into your claim after the submission of your ET1 and PoC without making an application to do so.

You say you cited examples of harassment in your PoC but did your relate this back to the relevamt legislation I.e. the Equality Act 2010?

[Poly]

Thank you.

I did specify Eq Act 2010 in making my claim of age discrimination.

I have gone back to the ET1 form, and looked at section 8 where you indicate the "Type and details of claim". It details the nine categories you can be discriminated against but there is no mention of harassment. In the final 'catch all' box, I then looked for the examples in the guidance referred to - there are none.

There is a difference between the way Victimisation and Harassment is framed as you are specifically allowed to cite Victimisation due to [x] discrimination.

Courtserve simply copies the Employment Tribunals own list, which I have just discovered at: employment-annex.xls

However, there is no reference to Harassment on this list either: the codes themselves are not the issue.

Sorry to persist on this matter but it is most confusing!

[ULA]

I can understand that it is most confusing as you are referring to abbreviations and description codes detailed in a website that provides information to the media, legal professionals and the public for listings of court / tribunal hearings and what they are about. Also the ET spreadsheet you linked to is not particularly helpful for you in your claim. However, let us move on from that and try to assist with progressing your claim.

In terms of your claim as far as I understand from your thread it is for age discrimination. I am not sure how you completed your ET1 but at section 8.1 of the ET1 you should have ticked the box" I was discriminated on the grounds of: "and then the "age" box should have been ticked. Then you should have ticked the box "I am making some other claim which the Employment Tribunal can deal with." In this was where your harassment claim should be stated.

Age discrimination, where you are treated unequally because of your particular age is unlawful under the Equality Act (EqA). Age discrimination can occur in several forms, once of which is harassment, which refers to offensive, intimidating or distressing behaviour based on age and violates your dignity or creates a working environment which is hostile, intimidating or degrading for you,

So, think of it as age discrimination being the overarching claim which is evidenced and proven by the way you were treated in the form of harassment.

I hope that helps to put the "hierarchy" of your claim and harassment as the form of the age discrimination into clear perspective.

[Poly]

Once again thank you ULA.

Yes, I ticked the box for age discrimination in 8.1.

I will request that my harassment discrimination claims be added as a separate head of claims from the details outlined by me in the first post.

However, if harassment (in the legal context) is so important - it features heavily on the ACAS website, and relates to ongoing discriminatory actions once the initial age discrimination takes place, why on earth does it not feature in any way on the full descriptive list of jurisdiction codes.

Your answers, whilst most helpful, have not been able to address this fact. it not a curiousity from my perspective, but a significant oversight in the Tribunal procedures that I still do not know the answer to, it simply does not make sense.

I will state this one more time. I have provided you with the official list of all jurisdiction codes, harassment appears nowhere, and there are relatively few tick boxes, so many claims with jurisdiction codes have to be entered into the free form section. What guidance is there anywhere on the Employment Tribunal pages on the official .gov website, does it explain that "Harassment due to Age Discrimination" is not just a valid claim, but a necessary title to add in a Claimant's POC?!

Many, many thanks in advance if you can progress my understanding further.

[ULA]

Unhelpful I know, but in answer to your question all I can say is welcome to the legal world and the court/tribunal system. On doing a bit of research a list produced by the Northern Ireland Tribunal on their Jurisdiction, albeit shorter and without codes, does have the caveat at the top of the page that it “is not intended to be an exhaustive list” and it certainly is not. My view is the spreadsheet you have linked to should say the same.

I understand your frustration that, as a litigant in person, you are relying on resources from a .gov website that you would like to think would provide all the information you need to assist making a claim.

Going forward all I can say is that the LB forum has assisted many people going through an ET claim as you may have seen so, please do use us as a reference point via this current thread and we will try to assist as best we can.

[Poly]

Ula, thank you for your research.

The Northern Island comparator could be most useful.

I will return to this thread in a couple of weeks after this matter will be resolved, and generally as my case progresses.

Once again, thanks

Poly

[ULA]

Northern Ireland is a different jurisdiction from the Tribunal services of England and Wales so not really of assistance but I have linked to it below

https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/...gin=BROWSELINK