The claimant alleged direct gender discrimination, indirect gender discrimination and victimisation contrary to the Sex Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 (‘the 1976 Order’), the background being an unsuccessful application for a more senior position.

In identifying that there were issues regarding proper adherence to time limits, the tribunal was required to decide whether matters raised referring to promotion competition were ‘one-off acts’ from which time separately began to run or, whether there had been an act extending over a period for the purposes of the legislation; ‘a continuing state of affairs.’

The importance of this distinction is, clear since a finding that the claim is based on a one off incident would trigger the three month time limit for