No appearance or v Respondent — 2020

Ms J Snow was dismissed on notice on 18 July 2018 for redundancy and received a statutory redundancy payment of £10,336.43. She presented an ET1 on 8 March 2019 ticking unfair dismissal, sex discrimination and redundancy payment, but she provided no particulars in the form itself, saying only that details would be added later. The tribunal held that the claim consisted only of the ET1; the later email of 1 April 2019 was not part of the claim.

Applying rule 12(1)(b) and rule 12(2) of the Employment Tribunal Rules 2013, the tribunal held that the claims could not sensibly be responded to. On unfair dismissal, the respondent knew the dismissal was for redundancy, but the claimant had accepted voluntary redundancy and gave no explanation of why the dismissal was said to be unfair. The sex discrimination claim contained no background facts at all. The redundancy payment claim was unintelligible because the claimant had already been paid a statutory redundancy payment and never identified what further sum was claimed or how it was calculated.

Employment Judge Nash had ordered the claimant to set out by 15 July 2020 how much she said was owed by way of redundancy payment and how she had calculated it, but she did not comply and gave no response to later reminders. The tribunal struck out the redundancy payment claim, describing the failure to comply as intentional and contumelious default and saying the claim was no longer actively pursued. It also held that the unfair dismissal, sex discrimination and contractual redundancy payment claims were out of time: the effective date of termination was 9 October 2018, the ACAS-adjusted limitation period expired on 7 March 2019, and the ET1 was presented one day late on 8 March 2019. The claimant offered no explanation for extending time, and her last-minute request to adjourn the 7 December 2020 hearing was refused because it was unsupported by medical evidence and she had had repeated reminders of the hearing date.