Mrs S Kane v PPM 2013 Limited — 2021

This was an interlocutory hearing on 3 August 2021 before Employment Judge McDonald in Manchester, dealing with the respondent's application under rule 37 of the Employment Tribunal Rules of Procedure 2013 to strike out Mrs S Kane's claims. The claimant had brought claims of unfair dismissal, redundancy payment, notice pay and arrears of pay. The tribunal decided the application on the papers and refused it; the final hearing remained listed for 9 September 2021.

Applying rule 37 and the authorities in Ezsias v North Glamorgan NHS Trust and Bolch v Chipman, the tribunal took the claimant's case at its highest. On the unfair dismissal issue, the respondent argued that the claimant did not have enough service to bring the claim, but the tribunal noted that no supporting documents had been provided with the strike-out application and that the respondent's own response form referred to the claimant having been employed as a personal assistant to the director in June 2018, with termination by letter dated 5 November 2020. The tribunal held that there was a live dispute about length of service and that evidence would be needed to resolve it.

On the unpaid wages and notice pay claims, the tribunal said there was no evidence of the payments made and that there was a live dispute about what the claimant was entitled to recover. It accepted that the dispute had been fractious and noted criticism of the claimant's conduct in continuing to copy the respondent's director into correspondence, but it held that a fair hearing was still possible because there was time before the final hearing for the parties to agree a bundle or bundles and exchange witness statements. The tribunal therefore refused the strike-out application and made case management directions instead.