Mr M Vella v Royal Automobile Club Ltd and 1 other — 2024

Mr M Vella brought a claim against Royal Automobile Club Ltd and Mr Anthony Spence. The tribunal held that the claim was one for ordinary unfair dismissal only. It found that the claimant had less than the two years' continuous employment required to bring a complaint of ordinary unfair dismissal.

The tribunal also considered the wording in paragraph 8.1 of the claim form, which referred to 'Automatically unfair dismissal under probationary period and detriment'. It held that no statutory provisions relating to unlawful detriment or automatically unfair dismissal were identified, and there was nothing in the narrative attachment to indicate that a jurisdictionally valid detriment or automatically unfair dismissal complaint was being brought. The tribunal stated that dismissing someone during a probationary period is not, by itself, automatically unfair dismissal. As the claimant did not have the requisite continuous employment, the tribunal held that it had no jurisdiction and struck out the claim. The hearing listed for 7-8 April 2025 was vacated.