Mr. R Telfer v Tphase Ltd — 2024

The case was listed for a final hearing by video on 10 October 2023 before Employment Judge Cawthray. The claimant did not attend. Tribunal staff tried twice to telephone him at around 10.10am, but the mobile number gave an unavailable message. The respondent's solicitor said there had been no contact from the claimant since the ET1 was submitted and that he had not complied with any tribunal orders.

The tribunal noted that the claimant had received an ACAS Early Conciliation certificate on 9 March 2023 and presented his ET1 on 31 March 2023. In box 8.1 he ticked notice pay, holiday pay and arrears of pay, but gave no further information and wrote only that the tribunal should speak to Trevor Hamblin at ACAS. The tribunal said the basis of the complaints was entirely unclear. It also noted that, after a letter on 22 June 2023 asking him to set out what sums he said he was owed and why, there was no reply.

The tribunal further recorded that a Notice of Hearing and Orders were sent on 3 July 2023 and that there was no evidence the claimant complied with them. A pre-hearing check letter was sent on 12 September 2023 and there was again no reply. The claimant had not made any application to postpone the hearing, and the telephone number he had provided was no longer operational.

In those circumstances, and in the absence of any reasonable explanation for non-attendance, the tribunal dismissed the claim under Rule 47 of the Employment Tribunal Rules. It said it did not have enough information to determine the claim, and that listing it for another final hearing would not be in accordance with the overriding objective and would prejudice the respondent and cause further cost and delay. For completeness, the tribunal said that if it had not dismissed under Rule 47 it would have struck the claim out under Rule 37 because it had not been actively pursued, there had been non-compliance with orders, and there was no reasonable prospect of success on the information available.