Ms K Element & Others (All Claimants represented by Leigh Day and Harcus Parker)

Judgment approved by the Court for handing down Tesco v Element & Ors © EAT 2025 Page 1 [2025] EAT 26 Neutral Citation Number: [2025] EAT 26 Case No: EA-2025-000025-AT EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL Rolls Building Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1NL Date: 27 February 2025 Before: HIS HONOUR JUDGE JAMES TAYLER - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Between: Tesco Stores Limited Appellant - and - Ms K Element & Others (All Claimants represented by Leigh Day and Harcus Parker) Respondents - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tom Coghlin KC and Mark Greaves instructed by Freshfields LLP for the Appellant Sean Jones KC, Andrew Blake and Rachel Barrett instructed by Leigh Day Solicitors for the Respondents who are Leigh Day claimants Keith Bryant KC and Stephen Butler instructed by Harcus Sinclair (UK) Limited for the Respondents who are Harcus claimants Hearing date: 14 February 2025 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - JUDGMENT Judgment approved by the Court for handing down Tesco v Element & Ors © EAT 2025 Page 2 [2025] EAT 26 His Honour Judge James Tayler The Issue 1. The issue in this appeal is whether the Employment Tribunal erred in law in refusing permission to Tesco to adduce expert evidence in relation to its material factor defence in this long running equal value litigation. The Parties 2. I will refer to the appellant as Tesco and the respondents to the appeal as the Leigh Day claimants and the Harcus claimants or, when it is not necessary to differentiate, the claimants. The Litigation 3. Tesco state that there are now more than 50,000 claimants in this litigation. Some of the claims were brought as early as 2018. In my judgment after a Preliminary Hearing on 27 November 2024 I noted that none of the claims have been determined, which is extremely troubling, especially because questions such as whether the work of someone…