Mr T Hancox In person v Ms Minette Batters & Ms Sarb Heer Ms J Shepherd – Counsel — 2021

The open preliminary hearing on 7 May 2021, conducted by CVP and later reserved, concerned strike-out applications in the claims against Ms Minette Batters and Ms Sarb Heer. The claimant applied to adjourn and argued that the hearing was not properly constituted, but Employment Judge Hindmarch refused to adjourn, held that the hearing had been listed with reasonable notice and could be heard by a judge sitting alone under Rules 54 and 55, and declined to recuse himself despite his previous involvement in related proceedings.

In the claim against Ms Batters, the tribunal noted that the claimant had ticked unfair dismissal on the ET1 but accepted in submissions that he did not intend to bring such a claim. The judge held that Ms Batters was not the employer, so any unfair dismissal claim was misconceived. The substance of the case was treated as a whistleblowing detriment claim based on alleged failure to escalate, investigate, or otherwise act on the claimant's letter, but the tribunal held that no causation was pleaded and that the complaint was plainly out of time because the claimant knew by 30 July 2020 that Ms Batters had forwarded the letter to HR and had not acted as he wanted.

In the claim against Ms Heer, the tribunal accepted that when the first claim was issued in June 2020 the claimant had not yet received the notes he later relied on. It nevertheless held that the earlier claim had been validly withdrawn at the interim relief hearing on 27 August 2020, that it came to an end under Rules 51 and 52, and that the claimant could not resile from that withdrawal. To the extent the later claim relied on different notes and new evidence, the tribunal held it was still out of time because the claimant had the documents by August 2020, was aware by September and October 2020 that he might bring a new claim, but did not start ACAS early conciliation until December 2020 or issue proceedings until January 2021. The respondents' strike-out applications were therefore granted.