Claimant v The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce — 2023

Ms R Hannan brought a sole complaint of automatic unfair dismissal under s.152(1)(b) TULR(C)A 1992. The respondent's case was that it had invoked a contractual PILON clause and that this did not amount to a dismissal; the claimant disputed the clause's applicability and maintained that she was dismissed by the letter dated 10 October 2022, before her notice period was due to expire on 18 October 2022.

At the preliminary hearing on 29 March 2023, the claimant applied to amend her claim form to add, in the alternative, a complaint under s.146(1)(b) TULR(C)A 1992 that the curtailment of her notice period and payment in lieu was a detriment for taking part in independent trade union activities. The tribunal treated the application as an addition of an alternative and parallel claim, rather than a mere relabelling exercise, and it noted that the factual matters relied on were already set out in the original particulars of claim.

Applying the approach in Selkent Bus Co Ltd v Moore, together with the other authorities cited in argument, the tribunal weighed the balance of injustice, hardship and prejudice. It accepted that the amendment application was outside the primary time limit, but found that no further factual pleading was required, no new witnesses were needed, the hearing dates would not change, and the respondent was not taken by surprise by any new factual allegations. The tribunal therefore granted the amendment.

The judgment made case management orders for a schedule of loss, disclosure, an agreed list of issues, witness statements and a three-day full merits hearing listed for 10 to 12 October 2023 before a judge sitting alone. No monetary award was made in this preliminary judgment and no merits finding was reached on either the dismissal complaint or the proposed detriment complaint.