Ms. U. Kawula v The House of Yoga (London) Limited (in liquidation) — 2024

Ms U. Kawula presented claims on 5 and 6 July 2022. After the respondent entered compulsory liquidation on 25 October 2023, the matter was relisted for hearing on 21 March 2024. The tribunal had issued an unless order requiring English medical evidence explaining the claimant's earlier non-attendance; the claimant supplied a translated medical certificate, which the judge found unsatisfactory because it did not state a diagnosis or say she was unfit to attend, but it was sufficient to avoid automatic strike out.

On the morning of the relisted hearing the claimant emailed to seek a postponement because her mother had been taken by ambulance to hospital the previous day. The judge refused the adjournment, relying on the overriding objective and the Presidential Guidance on seeking postponements of hearings, and took into account that the claims were stale, that this was the second missed hearing, that the claimant had delayed until shortly before the hearing to contact the tribunal, that no schedule of loss had been provided, and that it was not apparent why another person could not assist her mother in finding a hospital.

The claimant did not attend the hearing. The judge therefore proceeded in her absence and held that the claims for unfair dismissal, redundancy pay, notice pay, holiday pay, arrears of pay and other payments were not well founded and were dismissed. The tribunal also recorded that, in the claimant's absence, it was not satisfied that she had discharged the burden of establishing any of the losses she claimed.