Mrs S Rushton v OC Cleaning Solutions Limited — 2021

This was a preliminary hearing on 19 April 2021, after the final hearing listed for 30 October 2020 had been postponed because the claimant's length of service was in issue. The tribunal considered further bundle material and evidence obtained from Minster, the claimant's previous employer, following a TUPE transfer in 2018.

The Employment Judge noted that the documents from Minster and the claimant's payslips indicated that she had been employed by Minster since 2015 and had been working on the Utilities/Utiligrp N6 contract since August 2016, rather than only from 1 May 2018 as the respondent had initially understood. On that basis, the tribunal considered that the claimant had two years' qualifying service as at her dismissal on 19 September 2019.

After discussion, the respondent accepted that it could not challenge that evidence and conceded that the claimant did have the requisite qualifying service. The judgment therefore records that, upon that concession, the claimant's unfair dismissal claim could proceed. This decision did not determine the substantive fairness of the dismissal.

The tribunal also made case management observations about the hearing bundle and reminded the parties that unfair dismissal compensation is subject to statutory limits and that the claimant should disclose any relevant post-dismissal earnings documents if not already provided.