Did not attend and was not represented For the v Poseidon Human Capital and Government of Bahrain — 2019

The claimant, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, brought claims for unfair dismissal, race discrimination, disability discrimination, negligence, breach of duty of care and defamation arising from work at Bahrain Defence Force Hospital in Bahrain. The tribunal recorded that he had been recruited through the first respondent and had then worked for the second respondent in Bahrain. At the preliminary hearing he also mentioned harassment, but that had not been pleaded and no application to amend had been made.

The claimant did not attend the open preliminary hearing on 9 December 2019. The tribunal considered his emails asking for the hearing to be postponed, but decided there was no good reason to adjourn and proceeded in his absence. It struck out the common law claims of negligence, breach of duty of care and defamation because the Employment Tribunal has no jurisdiction to hear them.

On the unfair dismissal and discrimination claims, the tribunal applied the territorial jurisdiction authorities in Ravat, Duncombe and Lawson. It accepted that the claimant was a British citizen and that he had been recruited through a British company, but found that the employment relationship was overwhelmingly connected with Bahrain: he worked there, lived there with his family, was employed by a Bahraini hospital, and there was no evidence of a contractual or administrative link to Great Britain. The tribunal therefore held that it had no territorial jurisdiction over the unfair dismissal, race discrimination or disability discrimination claims, and struck them out. The judgment records that the claimant had previously been warned that the unfair dismissal claim also faced difficulty because he did not have two years' service under s108 Employment Rights Act 1996.