Mr S Ben Haj Fraj v Teleperformance limited — 2024

The claimant, Mr S Ben Haj Fraj, brought a claim of unauthorised deduction of wages against Teleperformance Limited. The hearing was listed for 11 September 2024 before Employment Judge B Smith sitting alone at London Central by remote hearing. The claimant did not attend at the time the hearing began, and the tribunal considered the hearing file and the steps taken by the tribunal clerk to contact him by email and telephone that morning.

The tribunal found that the claimant had been sent notice of the hearing to the postal and email addresses he had used on the claim form, and that he had also used the email address to communicate with the tribunal on 24 June 2024. It was satisfied that the claimant had notice of the hearing and had not attended for any good reason. In the absence of a postponement application, the tribunal decided that it was not in the interests of justice to postpone the hearing.

The tribunal also recorded that the respondent had not received the notice of hearing and only became aware of the hearing when the joining instructions were emailed the day before. On the material available, the tribunal considered it more likely than not that the notice had been sent to the respondent by post, and accepted that the respondent did not have notice of the hearing. The claim was therefore dismissed under rule 47 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013.

After the hearing had ended, the claimant emailed the tribunal stating that he had been trying to join and that the link did not work. The tribunal offered an opportunity to rejoin the hearing and provided telephone dial-in details, but the parties did not rejoin. The tribunal then decided it was not appropriate to reconsider the dismissal of its own motion under rule 70 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013.