Mr Toon v Advance Contracting Solutions Limited — 2021

The claimant brought a single claim for unfair dismissal. At an earlier preliminary hearing, Employment Judge Povey had explained that a claimant needs two years' continuous employment at the date of dismissal to bring an unfair dismissal claim, and the respondent said the claimant had been self-employed for a period between 10 December 2018 and 6 December 2019, so he did not have the necessary continuity immediately before his dismissal on 18 March 2020.

The claimant did not attend the 1 April 2021 hearing. The tribunal proceeded in his absence under Rule 47 of the Employment Tribunals Rules 2013 and considered the claimant's email of 8 October 2020, in which he accepted that he did not have an unfair dismissal claim because of a break in his employment. The tribunal also recorded that the claimant felt aggrieved by the dismissal, but said the allegations in the claim form could only be construed as an ordinary unfair dismissal claim and, on the claimant's own admission, he did not have sufficient service to bring it.

Treating the 8 October 2020 email as a withdrawal of the unfair dismissal claim, the tribunal concluded that the proceedings should be dismissed so that the matter ended without further expense to the parties. The judgment also noted that if the claimant disagreed, he could write to the tribunal explaining his non-attendance and ask for reconsideration under Rules 70 to 72 of the Employment Tribunal Rules 2013.