The claimant appealed against a ruling that the claimant's claims of disability discrimination were out of time. The appeal was allowed and the case was remitted to a full merits hearing.
The EAT held that postings made on Facebook over a four-month period about an employee were part of a continuing act for the purposes of discrimination law, despite a seven-week break in the postings. An earlier Employment Tribunal dismissed Mr Novak's claim, holding that the sets of comments were separate acts as they did not involve the same individuals, the subject matter was different and there was a break of 7 weeks between the postings.
The tribunal, therefore, dismissed matters arising from the first set of postings for being out of time.
The EAT held that comments posted on Facebook about an employee formed part of a continuing act for the purposes of discrimination law, given that they were linked in terms of subject matter, the participants and the period of time over which they were made. The EAT also held that, as Mr Novak had an arguable case that the events formed a continuous act up until the last posting occurred, the first claim was therefore in time.
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