Mr Waqar Mohammed v Vision Care Services Limited and 1 other — 2022

This was a preliminary hearing by telephone on 21 January 2022 before Employment Judge R S Drake sitting alone. The claimant did not attend, and the tribunal proceeded in his absence after waiting 15 minutes. The respondent's representative said there had been no contact from the claimant since the ET3 was filed on 7 October 2021, despite attempts to correspond about the hearing.

The tribunal struck out both claims under Rule 37(1)(a) and (d) of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013. On the breach of contract claim, the judge recorded that the claimant was still employed by the first respondent when proceedings were started on 7 September 2021 and held that a breach of contract claim issued whilst still in employment had no reasonable prospect of success.

On the protected disclosure claim, the tribunal read the claimant's grounds of complaint as referring to a disclosure made by 'an employee' other than the claimant. Applying section 47B ERA 1996, the judge held that the person making the protected disclosure must be the person bringing the claim, so the claimant had no viable cause of action on that basis. The tribunal also referred to Swain v Hillman and considered the balance of prejudice before concluding that the claims should be struck out and dismissed.