Safia Tharoo

Safia regularly acts on behalf of both Claimants and Respondents in both the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal in all areas of employment law, including unfair and wrongful dismissal, all forms of discrimination (including sex, race, disability, religion and sexual orientation), breach of contract, TUPE, and redundancy. She has developed a strong discrimination practice, and is often instructed in complex matters where numerous allegations are made.

Safia is happy to provide written advice on liability and remedy throughout the course of a claim.

Safia has also acted in judicial mediations and in civil claims arising out of employment relationships, as well as in internal disciplinary and appeal processes.

Safia has given seminar talks on a variety of employment related areas, the most recent being ‘Remedies in high value discrimination cases’ and ‘Navigating the TUPE maze’. She also provides in-house training courses on preparing for employment tribunal hearings specifically tailored to the client concerned, often in the form of ‘mock tribunals’.

Related professional memberships

• Employment Law Bar Association
• Employment Lawyers Association

Related selected cases:

• Khan v Royal Mail Group Ltd & Others
  [2014] EWCA Civ 1082
  Safia successfully represented the Respondent employer in the Court of Appeal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal (UKEAT/0160/11), having earlier been successful in the employment tribunal following a 10 day hearing in a claim for race and religious discrimination claim comprising 24 separate allegations. The appeals were predicated on the basis that the tribunal had misdirected themselves on the applicable burden of proof when determining the issues but after being taken carefully through the tribunal’s reasons, they accepted that the tribunal had in fact properly directed themselves notwithstanding some poorly phrased conclusions.
• Eastman v Tesco Stores Ltd
  UKEAT/0143/12
  Safia successfully represented the employer in a case where the EAT found that an employment judge was entitled to strike out a claim of unfair dismissal as having no reasonable prospect of success; the judge was entitled to resolve crucial core disputes as to facts at a pre-hearing review and so determine the prospects of the case on that factual basis.
• El Kholy v Rentokil Initial Facilities Services Ltd
  UKEAT/0472/12
  Safia successfully represented the employer in a case where the EAT reaffirmed the principle in Dedman that where a Claimant instructs solicitors to represent him, he cannot rely on the ‘not reasonably practicable’ defence when his claim is submitted out of time. The Claimant had sought to argue that since he had only instructed his solicitors to deal with his internal appeal, and did not know that he could bring a claim of unfair dismissal, much less the time limits for doing so, the Dedman principle should not apply, however the EAT disagreed.
• Mr I v T and others – Successfully representing the Respondent employer and one named
  Respondent in a 27 day sex and race discrimination claim involving some 15 witnesses.
• Mr K v L Ltd – Successfully representing the Respondent in a five day unfair dismissal/race discrimination claim where compensation had been agreed (subject to liability) at just over
  £2.5million.
• Mr J v L Ltd – This was a claim for unfair dismissal (redundancy) and race discrimination claim involving 37 separate allegations and 13 witnesses. Safia successfully applied for the claim to be struck out after 16 days of evidence following the conduct of the Claimant in attempting to continually delay proceedings.

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