in person For the 1st v Bylor EDF Energy — 2023

At the 7 February 2023 video hearing, Employment Judge Housego dealt with strike-out applications in Stefan Abalesei's case arising from work at Hinckley C. The judge noted that the 1st Respondent was not a legal identity and struck out all claims against it. The 3rd Respondent's name was amended to Minstrell Recruitment Ltd because the money claim was plainly directed at that company rather than Paul Moran personally.

The unfair dismissal claim was struck out. The claimant accepted that he had been an agency worker with a contract only with Minstrell Recruitment Ltd and had worked for about four months. The tribunal found that there was no health and safety issue and no public interest disclosure basis, and with the claimant's consent it struck out the unfair dismissal claim against the remaining respondents.

The age and race discrimination claims were also struck out as having no reasonable prospect of success. The tribunal applied the high threshold for striking out discrimination claims and referred to Ahir v British Airways Plc [2017] EWCA Civ 1392. It found that the clocking-in and clocking-out practice operated site-wide and applied to everyone regardless of age, race or nationality, so there was no less favourable treatment. The complaints about the office clocking machine and people laughing at him were found to be linked to being new, an agency worker, or not a manager, rather than to age or Romanian nationality.

What remained was a money claim against Minstrell Recruitment Ltd for alleged unpaid agency-worker pay. The judge described this as a breach of contract claim for failure to pay money earned as an agency worker, noted that the claimant did not fall within section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, and recorded that the claimant said he had lost about £4,000 on basic pay and a further £1,800 through deductions from overtime. The tribunal did not determine that claim at this hearing and made directions for the respondent to answer it.