Mrs B v A Rojha Zinc Media Group plc — 2021

The tribunal held a public preliminary hearing on 3 December 2021 about the claimant's applications to set aside case management and unless orders made on 31 March and 11 October 2021 in proceedings against Zinc Media Group plc. The underlying proceedings had included a claim described by the claimant as an enhanced contractual redundancy payment, together with claims for unfair dismissal, racial discrimination and unauthorised deductions from wages. The claimant did not attend the hearing; the respondents were represented by Mrs N Walker.

The judge recorded that the claimant had failed to comply with the 31 March 2021 directions requiring further particulars of the discrimination and wage claims and an itemised statement of remedies, and then failed to comply with the unless order made on 11 October 2021. Applying rule 38(2) of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013 and the approach in Thind v Salvesen Logistics Ltd, the tribunal held that the breach was clear, deliberate and unjustified, and that there was no basis in the interests of justice to set aside the orders. The tribunal also refused the separate application to set aside the 31 March order, including on the basis that the earlier application of 12 May 2021 would have failed in any event.

The tribunal held that the strike-out order stood and that the proceedings remained at an end. On costs, it found that the claimant had conducted the litigation unreasonably and in breach of tribunal orders, leaving the case stalled for many months and putting the respondents to avoidable cost and inconvenience. It ordered the claimant to pay £3,975 as a contribution towards the respondents' costs, noting that no information about her means had been provided.