Miss E Kosnik v Total Recruitment Solutions Ltd — 2022

This was listed as the final hearing of Miss E Kosnik's claim against Total Recruitment Solutions Ltd, which the tribunal understood to concern non-payment of holiday pay, and possibly sick pay. The hearing had previously been postponed on 17 June 2022 because of the respondent's non-attendance and confusion about the hearing notice, and it was re-listed for 15 August 2022.

Before the hearing, on 12 July 2022, the tribunal made case management orders requiring the claimant to set out the amounts claimed and requiring both parties to exchange documentary and witness evidence. No evidence was received from either side before the hearing or by the time it was due to start. Neither party attended or was represented when the case was called, and the tribunal waited until 10.30am.

In those circumstances, and in the absence of any communication from either party since April 2022 or since the postponed hearing in June 2022, Judge Brian Doyle decided there was no purpose in trying to contact them. The tribunal noted that the failure to comply with the case management orders pointed towards the possibility that the claim had been settled in some way, but it could not decide the claim on its merits without evidence beyond the ET1 and ET3.

Accordingly, acting under rule 47 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013, the claim was dismissed. The tribunal added that if the absence of one or both parties had been inadvertent or otherwise explicable, it would readily revoke the judgment under rules 70 to 73 and relist the final hearing.