Mrs G Dunarintu v Wolstenholme Machine Knives Limited — 2020

At a telephone hearing in Sheffield on 26 August 2020, Employment Judge Little held that the unfair dismissal complaint could not proceed because the Tribunal lacked jurisdiction. The judgment records the Employment Rights Act 1996 rule that the right not to be unfairly dismissed usually applies only where the employee has at least two years' continuous employment ending with the effective date of termination, and notes that none of the automatic unfair dismissal exceptions applied.

The claimant's employment is stated to have run from 16 April 2019 to 24 March 2020, which the tribunal described as approximately 11 months. On that basis, the judge concluded that she did not have the right not to be unfairly dismissed and that the Tribunal had no jurisdiction over that complaint. The judgment states that this decision did not affect the other complaints in the claim form, which were race discrimination and sex discrimination arising from the same dismissal.