Claimant v Fedex UK — 2020

Mrs Lovelady presented a claim on 2 September 2018 for notice pay and statutory redundancy payment, naming Idealquick Ltd and Fedex UK Limited. The ACAS early conciliation certificate issued on 30 August 2018 named only Idealquick Ltd. The hearing before Employment Judge Kelly was to decide whether the claim against Fedex UK Limited could proceed despite that defect.

The tribunal held that the letter of 21 December 2018 stating that the claim could not now proceed was not a judgment or order and did not bind the tribunal. It also held that there was no statutory or case-law basis for the proposition that a later ACAS certificate, obtained after presentation of the claim, could cause the existing claim to be treated as validly presented. The tribunal said that such an approach would be inconsistent with the purpose of the ACAS early conciliation process.

The tribunal further held that rule 13 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013 did not apply because the claimant's claim had not been rejected. It rejected the argument that the 21 December 2018 letter amounted to a rejection, and it concluded that the claimant could not use rule 13 to rectify the defect. The tribunal also disagreed that the January 2019 reasons contemplated that a later certificate would simply cure the existing claim; if a new certificate were issued, the claimant would need to bring a new claim.

The claimant relied on Giny v SNA Transport Ltd and Chard v Trowbridge Office Cleaning Services Ltd, but the tribunal distinguished those authorities because both involved rejected claims and different factual situations. It held that the present claim remained defective because there was no pre-issued ACAS early conciliation certificate naming Fedex UK Limited as a prospective respondent, and it therefore dismissed the claim.