Not present or represented For the v Mr M Fakier, Employee Relations specialist — 2023

The tribunal listed the matter for a case management preliminary hearing by video on 25 October 2023. On 24 October 2023 the claimant asked for the hearing to be postponed, saying she was still recovering from being unwell and had not had much time to prepare. Regional Employment Judge Freer refused that application because the hearing was a short case management discussion, no supporting medical evidence had been supplied, and postponement would not be consistent with the overriding objective.

The claimant did not join the hearing. The clerk tried to contact her by phone and email, including a warning that if she did not join by 2.20pm the hearing would proceed in her absence and her claim might be dismissed. She did not respond. The respondents attended and Mr Fakier asked for the claim to be dismissed under Rule 47 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013.

Employment Judge Klimov decided not to proceed in the claimant’s absence because the claim required substantial clarification and could not be case-managed properly without the claimant or written representations. The judge found that reasonable steps had been taken to contact the claimant, that she had been told the hearing would go ahead, that she had no valid basis to reopen the refusal to postpone, and that she had ignored the direction to complete and return the case management agenda. The claim was therefore dismissed for non-attendance.