Mr B Williams v Mr K Ward — 2022

The claimant brought a claim dated 22 November 2021 for unpaid holiday pay. The respondent said in its response of 20 December 2021 that the claimant's employment had transferred to a new employer on 1 November 2021 and that it was not liable for any outstanding holiday pay.

The tribunal issued case management directions requiring a schedule of loss and later invited the claimant to comment on the response and on whether a transferee should be added. The judgment records that there was no response to those communications, no schedule of loss was received, and there was no response to the further email sent on 6 May 2022 attaching the CVP hearing link and reminding the claimant of the hearing and document deadlines.

Neither party attended the hearing on 16 May 2022. The tribunal telephoned the claimant, who said he had received the acknowledgement and case management orders but not notice of the hearing and believed it was listed for 22 May; when asked whether he wished to attend late, he said he was not able to do so. The tribunal held that the administration had discharged its duties to communicate clearly and that the failure to attend, together with the repeated failures to respond to directions, correspondence and requests for information, amounted to a failure to actively pursue the claim. It struck the claim out under rule 37 of the Employment Tribunal Rules of Procedure in the interests of justice.