Ross Terrebonne v NM Telecom Ltd — 2019

At the hearing on 24 June 2019, Employment Judge Housego considered whether NM Telecom Ltd had complied with an unless order made by Employment Judge Roper on 26 April 2019. The order required the respondent to confirm whether it continued to dispute that Nidhi Mohan was an employee or agent for the claimant's public interest disclosure and race discrimination claims and, if it did, to provide Samsung login records for the period 1 November 2017 to 31 March 2018. The respondent did not provide the required records by the deadline.

After hearing from Madan Mohan through a Hindi interpreter, the tribunal found that the explanations given for not producing the records shifted during the hearing and were inconsistent. The judge concluded that the respondent was seeking to evade the issue. On the evidence given, the tribunal found that Nidhi Mohan was fully involved in the running of the respondent's Plymouth shop where the claimant worked, and that the denial of her involvement was an attempt to rely on a technical point to avoid the claim.

Because the unless order was not complied with, and the judge treated the non-compliance as deliberate, the respondent's response was struck out and judgment was entered for the claimant in respect of all his claims as set out in the case management order of 7 January 2019. The case was relisted for a remedy hearing, so no monetary award was made in this decision.